PIL seeks CBI probe into chit fund companies

A PIL was filed in the Calcutta High Court today seeking a CBI investigation into chit fund companies that have allegedly defrauded lakhs of investors in West Bengal following closure of the Saradha Group of companies while also demanding the arrest of Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh.
Advocate Basabi Roy Chowdhury filed the PIL praying for a CBI investigation into all chit fund companies to bring to book all involved in the alleged scam, which she claimed amounted to a staggering Rs 30,000 crore.
Chowdhury's counsel Subroto Mukhopadhyay said that the petitioner prayed for the arrest of Saradha Media's executive chairman Kunal Ghosh alleging complicity in the scam.

Ghosh, a Trinamool Congress-nominated Rajya Sabha MP, was earlier the CEO of Saradha Media group, which owned several newspapers and news and entertainment television channels in Bengal and Assam.
These media houses which had started functioning since 2010, had suddenly closed down in March this year.
Saradha Group, which had started its chit fund business in the state in early 2000's, had flourished exponentially since 2005-06 and had interests in realty, tours and travel and media among others.

Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen, who had started out as a small time property dealer in the late 1990's, has fled Kolkata and a look out notice has been issued by the detective department of Kolkata Police, which is investigating the case.

The petitioner prayed that all properties owned by Saradha Group be taken into possession by the government.
She also prayed that the state and central government declare the scam, which has affected lakhs of investors in the state, a national tragedy and pay compensation to the victims.
The petition is likely to be taken up in the court of Chief Justice Arun Mishra tomorrow or the day after, Mukhopadhyay said.