No progress in chitfund scam probe: SC told

There has been no progress in the CBI probe in the chit fund scam case due to lack of manpower and infrastructure in the agency, the amicus curie in the case told the apex court today.
Appearing before a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur, senior advocate Shyam Divan, who assisted the Supreme Court, said that only four-five CBI sleuths are conducting the probe against nearly 44 companies and their officials and the investigation is going nowhere.
He submitted that the court should intervene to ensure that sufficient number of manpower get involved in the multi-crore scam probe to bring the investigation to a logical conclusion.

The bench, after hearing his plea, agreed to hear the petition next week and raised question why the CBI has not approached the court on the issue.
The apex court had on May 9 ordered CBI probe into chit fund scams in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam in which various companies, including Saradha, allegedly duped investors of around Rs 10,000 crore, while taking note of allegations of scamsters getting "patronage" of people in "high positions".
"Investigation by the state police in a scam that involves thousands of crores collected from the public allegedly because of the patronage of people occupying high positions in the system will hardly carry conviction especially when even the regulators who were expected to prevent or check such a scam appear to have turned a blind eye to what was going on," the apex court had said.

Holding the scam as "sordid affair", it had said that investigation by the state police has not unfortunately made any significant headway in recovering the money.