-The Hindu The CBI's formal acknowledgment to the Supreme Court that, on the demand of Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, it shared the status report of its investigations on the Coalgate scam with bureaucrats in the PMO and Coal Ministry shows how deeply the agency stands compromised. The fact that the CBI Director has now assured the court that the bureau's future status reports "shall not be shared with any [member...

-The Hindustan Times The meltdown of the Saradha Group and subsequent focus on the state's multiple ponzi scams are hitting Bengal's film industry where it hurts the most - right in the pocket. The release of Asharey Gappo, a film funded by Angel Cinevision & Media - a deposit-taking company (popularly known as a ponzi fund) - has now been postponed indefinitely, even though the funding company does not have any apparent...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Arrested Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen, the architect of the default crisis in Bengal, has said he had approached several CPM leaders over his business, police said. Sen, who was brought to Calcutta late last night and kept in police custody before his court production this afternoon, has told the police he had met a CPM state committee member in 2008 over a possible investment in a news channel...

-The Hindu The spectacular failure of the Saradha Group domiciled in West Bengal but also operating in a few adjoining States reinforces certain Important messages from past scams. The first lesson to investors and regulators alike is that it is still possible for unscrupulous promoters to design and operate Ponzi schemes built around promises of extraordinary returns that are clearly unsustainable. Such schemes depend upon a steady stream of fresh deposits...

-The Hindu In the Bhullar case, the Supreme Court has created a category of ‘terrorists' among those sentenced to death without providing a constitutional basis for it Writing on extra-judicial killings in the Economic and Political Weekly in March 1996, K.G. Kannabiran narrated a very interesting anecdote from his experience on the Civil Rights Committee appointed by Jayaprakash Narayan to investigate fake encounters orchestrated during the Emergency against naxalites. While interacting with...