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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Chits come home to roost

Chits come home to roost

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published Published on Apr 20, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 20, 2013
-The Telegraph


Calcutta: From Mamata Banerjee's backyard in Harish Chatterjee Street to Contai in East Midnapore, a contagion of protests is spreading in several parts of Bengal.

Funds collection agents of the Saradha Group are besieging the seats of power with appeals to step in and avert a run on the chit fund-fuelled company since the Trinamul government was seen as the undeclared gilt-edged guarantor during the good times.

Trinamul lent credence to such a perception by associating itself with the group's events and nominating its then CEO to the Rajya Sabha.

With the group defaulting on repayments for the last couple of months and winding up its media business recently, investors have started seeking their deposits back. This has put the agents - the last link in the funds collection chain - at the receiving end in villages.

"I have not returned home since Wednesday and have asked my wife and son to go to my in-law's place. My investors are threatening to kill me if I am unable to return their money," said Sisir Kumar Das from Chandernagore, who was among hundreds of agents who laid siege to Harish Chatterjee Street where the chief minister's house is located.

The agents were pressing for an immediate intervention by Mamata to recover the investments in various schemes they had been selling across rural Bengal with attractive commissions. They also demanded the arrest of Sudipto Sen, the group chairman and managing director, and Kunal Ghosh, the group's former CEO and Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP.

Sources in the Saradha Group said that the immediate payout requirement would not be less than Rs 1,200 crore.

The police managed to shoo away the agents from the chief minister's neighbourhood after around four hours of coaxing. But some agents said they would carry on with their protests and press for the ruling party's intervention.

"We didn't know the owners of the company. We became agents and started selling their products as we saw senior ministers and Trinamul MPs and MLAs had close ties with the group," said Sujit Debnath, an agent from Nadia.

That the agents had come to Mamata's house - two days ago they had gone to the Trinamul office in Topsia - made it clear that the general impression was that the Saradha Group had the blessings of the ruling establishment, including Mamata.

The chief minister launched the group's Bengali newspaper (Kalam) and a women's magazine (Parama) at two different events at Town Hall. Mamata had also attended a Channel 10 - part of the Saradha media basket - gameshow in Darjeeling by extending her stay in the hills by a day.

A booklet published by the group featured pictures of mobile health units it had gifted the government. "The CM offered 10 mobile health units to the residents of Jungle Mahal in the presence of Sudipto Sen," a government official recalled.

The bonhomie was reflected in the pro-Trinamul coverage in various publications and news channels run by Saradha.

The Trinamul MP from Diamond Harbour, Somen Mitra, told The Telegraph today: "I was the first to raise the issue. I could see people were being pushed to the brink of destruction. There were people in the party who questioned why I wrote the letter to Sebi. Today, I stand vindicated."

But the government did nothing - which sent a loud but damaging message.

"We were told that the company was recognised and accredited by the state government and that is why MP Kunal Ghosh was directly involved with the group," said Pranab Mohanty, an agent from Kolaghat.

Although holding no licence to collect deposits, the Saradha Group had been raising money from small investors - ranging from electricians to small traders - since July 2008 as advances for its real estate and other companies.

The lure of handsome rewards - a five-year investment promising a 2.5-fold return - drew the investors while the agents pocketed commissions ranging from 15 to 30 per cent.

"As an LIC agent, I used to earn around Rs 5,000 a month. But Saradha was giving me a monthly income in excess of Rs 15,000," said Soumya Majumdar from Arambagh, who has to repay around Rs 25 lakh to depositors.

According to him, cheques from the group started getting dishonoured in late January. The closure of the media outlets opened the floodgates of panic. Protests broke out in Baruipur, Contai and outside the Salt Lake office of the Saradha Group.

Trinamul all-India general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy said: "None of these companies were given licence by our government. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government allowed them to operate. There is nothing much that we can do here. The matter has to be settled legally."


The Telegraph, 20 April, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130420/jsp/frontpage/story_16807090.jsp#.UXH6_0rcing


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