CBI searches Sebi officials' homes, office in Mumbai in Saradha case probe

CBI believes the market regulator could have been more proactive to crack down on the scam before it became public in 2013.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday searched the homes and offices of three senior officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in the Saradha chit fund scam, bringing back to focus a case that is politically sensitive in West Bengal.
 
Sources said a CBI team visited the Sebi office in Mumbai on Monday and the residences of two chief general managers — Jayanta Jash and Jeevan Sonparote, who is currently with Sebi’s investigation department and corporate finance department. A deputy general manager, Prasenjit Dey, was also covered under the search operation.  The officials were posted in Kolkata between 2009 and 2013, when the alleged scam hit the headlines.
 
Searches covered a total of six premises and might cover more officials as the CBI looks to gather information on schemes floated by Saradha Realty, said a source in the investigative agency. “Some more officials will be questioned soon and if require will also reach out to the Registrar of Companies.” The CBI believes that Sebi could have been more proactive in cracking down on the scam.

 
CBI has filed multiple charge sheets in the case between 2014 and 2019. A charge sheet in 2019 named Nalini Chidambaram, wife of Congress party leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram, accusing her taking a bribe of Rs 1.4 crore in the alleged ponzi scam.
 
CBI had said Nalini Chidambaram conspired with Sudipta Sen, the promoter of Saradha group, with the intention of cheating and misappropriating funds.
 
Sebi found Saradha Realty’s schemes illegal and in April 2013 it issued an order against the company and its promoters. Sebi gave the order three years after receiving a complaint from West Bengal’s director of the Economic Offences Investigation Cell (EOIC) informing it that Saradha Realty was collecting money from the public, particularly in the rural areas of the state.