The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting simultaneous raids on the offices of the chit fund company, Microfinance Limited, in connection with the Saradha Chit Fund scam in Odisha.
Reports said that at least 15 places are under the scanner, including locations in Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack and Brahmapur.
CBI officials also raided the Bhubaneswar house of Durga Prasad Misra, the managing director of the company.
Simultaneous raids were also conducted at its offices in Sahidnagar and Rasulgarh Industrial Estates in Bhubaneswar.
The financial scam emerged out of the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies that was believed to be running collective investment schemes popularly, but incorrectly referred to as chit funds across Eastern India.
The group collected around Rs.200 to Rs.300 billion from over 1.7 million depositors before it collapsed in April 2013.
Following the scandal, the West Bengal Government where the Saradha Group and most of its investors were based instituted an inquiry to investigate the collapse.
The state government also set up a fund of Rs.5 billion to ensure that low-income investors were not bankrupted.
The Central Government through the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate launched a multi-agency probe to investigate the Saradha scam and similar Ponzi schemes.
In May 2014, the Supreme Court of India, citing inter-state ramifications, possible international money laundering, serious regulatory failures and alleged political nexus, transferred all investigations into the Saradha Scam and other Ponzi schemes to the CBI.
