The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered six more cases of chit fund scam in West Bengal, involving 38 accused persons who collected money from a large number of small-time investors on the pretext of huge returns.
The companies mentioned in the FIRs include R.S.S. Traders, Swarnatori Project Infra Limited, Purusattam Infotech Industries Limited, Ratdin Marketing Private Limited, Maharani Gayatri Devi Parva Project Private Limited and Real Bhumi Agro Development International Limited.
The promoters and directors of these companies have been accused by the victims, and in some cases even by the agents who worked for them, of collecting investments on the promise of huge returns. However, they did not repay the investors. Several accused persons vanished from the scene.
The agency has registered more than 1,000 cases against the accused persons for allegedly cheating the investors in West Bengal, Odisha and other States of hundreds of crores.
Supreme Court order
The cases are being instituted following a directive from the Supreme Court on May 9, 2014, to the CBI to take over the FIRs pertaining to chit fund rackets registered at various police stations in West Bengal and Odisha, including the Saradha scam.
The Enforcement Directorate was also instructed to expedite the probe against the Saradha Group companies.
The chit fund scam, which had hit West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Odisha, involved collection of about ₹10,000 crore from the general public, especially the weaker sections of the society which had fallen prey to the temptations of handsome returns on such deposits extended by the companies involved in the scam, as mentioned in the judgment.
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Till May 2014, over 25 lakh claims had been received by the Commissions of Enquiries set up in Odisha and West Bengal.
