Saradha looted Rs 500 cr from Assam: CBI

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, March 20: The Saradha group collected over Rs 500 crore from gullible investors in Assam as part of its vast ponzi network. This was intimated to a bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday by a CBI counsel.

During this hearing, the court also rejected the bail plea of singer Sadanda Gogoi who was arrested in September last year. Sadanda was med in a chargesheet filed by the investigating agency earlier.

The CBI counsel told the court that Saradha’s network spread across a number of states.

According to a report in a vercular daily in Kolkata, the CBI also alleged that Sadanda Gogoi, former Union minister Matang Sinh and former State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma helped Saradha chief Sudipto Sen in Assam in setting up his chit fund business.

The CBI said that it was through Sadanda Gogoi that some high-profile people in Assam – including politicians, bureaucrats and police officials - came in touch with Sudipto Sen and helped him spread his network.

The CBI opposed Sadanda’s bail plea on the ground that it would be difficult to get more information and evidence from him if he is set free.

Placing his bail plea before the court, Sadanda’s counsel had argued that he has been in custody for 188 days and no new evidence has been collected against him by the CBI.

The court, however, rejected the bail plea following opposition from the CBI.

The Saradha group had floated at least 279 companies to channelise money collected from gullible investors as part of a vast ‘ponzi’ network.

Most of these firms have been found to be ‘inoperatiol’ and were utilized for the sole purpose of multi-routing of funds to hide the money trail, while close to Rs 2,500 crore was raised by just four companies.

The CBI had last month med West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra, along with former Trimool Congress Rajya Sabha members Kul Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose and Saradha promoter Sudipto Sen’s lawyer resh Bhalotia, in a supplementary chargesheet filed in a court in the Saradha Realty case.

The first chargesheet in the Saradha Realty case med former state police chief and TMC leader Rajat Majumder, Sadanda Gogoi and East Bengal club official Debabrata Sarkar along with prime accused Sudipto Sen and Debjani Mukherjee.

Earlier, the CBI had filed another chargesheet related to Saradha Tours and Travels case, ming Sen, Mukherjee and Ghosh.