Chit fund agent dies, director commits suicide

The body count, mostly from suicides after the chit fund bubble burst, went up to 11 on Tuesday with the death of an agent and an alleged suicide by a chit fund firm director.

Chit fund agent Mrinal Kanti Mondal, who had consumed poison on Sunday night after being hounded by depositors, died in a hospital, police said. Mondal hailed from Sangrampur village in North 24 Parganas district.

Police found the body of Hello Chit fund director Indrajit Roy hanging at his residence on Tuesday morning. Roy was under depression for sometime, they said.

Hooghly police, meanwhile, arrested a partner of the same firm, Biplab Biswas, for killing another director, Jayanta Sarkar, on May 5 at Chinsura in the district.

On Monday, Jagadish Roy, the 60-year-old father of a chit fund agent, hanged himself at his home at Sodepur in North 24 Parganas after public humiliation.

On May 3, Ranjit Pramanik, who had invested heavily in the Saradha Group, committed suicide by consuming poison at Thakurchawk in Joynagar area of South 24-Parganas district.

A day earlier, a hotelier and a chit fund company director ended their lives in the same district.

Swapan Kumar Biswas, 36, a Saradha agent, was found hanging from the ceiling of his house at Balrampur in Purulia district on April 27.

On April 20, 50-year-old Urmila Pramanik, a resident of Baruipur in South 24-Parganas, who had invested Rs 30,000 in the Saradha group, had set herself on fire and died in a hospital next day.

Three Saradha agents had earlier ended their lives at Mathurapur, DiamondHarbour and Falta in South 24-Parganas.