The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on March 22 conducted raids at six locations in Mumbai in connection with the Saradha scam case.
The locations being raided included the residence and office premises of three senior Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) officials. The officials' role reportedly came under the scanner during their posting in the market regulator's Kolkata office between 2009 and 2013.
The case relates to an alleged financial scam and political scandal caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by the Saradha Group. The Supreme Court had handed over the probe to the CBI and asked state governments concerned to provide all logistical help to the agency team investigating the matter. The Centre has also undertaken a multi-agency probe into the scam, including through the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Many prominent personalities, including politicians, Members of Legislative Assembly and Members of Parliament, have been accused of involvement in the scam. The raids come at a time when the assembly election campaign is picking up pace in Bengal.
Here are the key things you need know about the Saradha scam:
> An umbrella company with 200 private players, Saradha Group in West Bengal has allegedly cheated more than a million investors by running Ponzi schemes.
> The scam, which came to light in April 2013, was worth over Rs 10,000 crore.
> Following the unearthing of the scam, the state government set up a Rs 500 crore relief fund for small investors who had put money in the scheme, to prevent them from going bankrupt.
> On April 23, 2013, Chairman and MD Sudipta Sen, along with Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chauhan, were arrested from Kashmir.
> After their arrest, Sebi asked Saradha Group to immediately stop raising any further capital and return all deposits within three months.
> In a written application, Sen said that several Trinamool Congress MPs were also involved in the scam.
> TMC leader and former MP Kunal Ghosh, who was once an employee of the Saradha Group, has reportedly returned the salary he earned while he worked for the media arm of the ponzi company. The money paid to Ghosh by the Saradha Group amounted to Rs 2.67 crore. He handed over the amount to the ED on March 17, 2021, according to a report by India Today. Although he was suspended from the TMC in 2013, he was reinstated as the party spokesperson last year.
> Actor Mithun Chakraborty, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, had quit the Rajya Sabha in 2016 after his name surfaced in the scam case.
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