-Economic and Political Weekly The Saradha group's collapse has possibly bankrupted lakhs of small investors robbing them of their life svaings, and has rendered thousands of its agents jobless. The scam highlights the failure of the government and its regulatory agencies to reign in the mushrooming chit fund companies in West Bengal. It also brings under the scanner the Trinamool Congress' proximity with the tainted group. In the wake of the...

-The Indian Express In the wake of the collapse of the Saradha chit fund company, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry has asked all television channels - general entertainment as well as news and current affairs - to furnish details of their shareholding pattern and equity structure. This includes the Saradha Group. According to sources, the ministry's letter, sent on Friday, asks channels to inform whether there had been any changes in their...

-The Indian Express West Bengal is not new to chit fund scams. What is unique to the Saradha Group scandal is how it targeted the poorest and the most marginalised, leaving them on the verge of devastation. From 17-year-old agents who raised money from depositors to 50-year-old widows who invested money, the Saradha Group didn't discriminate in roping them in. Since the house of cards started collapsing, two agents and two...

-The Indian Express Kolkata: Saradha Realty Ltd, which has gone bust now, may be just the beginning of the unfolding of a deeply entrenched Ponzi scheme network involving dozens of other companies in West Bengal, some of which also wield considerable media power given their ownership of television channels and newspapers. According to information available with the union corporate affairs and finance ministries, six companies, against whom market regulator Securities and Exchange...

-The Times of India The collapse of Saradha Group, promoted by Sudipta Sen, is the greatest threat yet to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress regime in Bengal. It could also imperil the finances of millions of people in Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Trinamool's blatant association with the bigwigs of Saradha, which raised vast amounts of money from poor people before collapsing, is a potentially fatal political body blow....