Chit fund scam: Left leaders meet Prez, PM, FM, seek CBI probe

Seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation under court supervision into chit fund scam in West Bengal, Left parties on Thursday accused the Mamata Banerjee government of opposing such a probe into the "unprecedented fraud" and failing to take any step to recover "hard-earned" savings of the people.

Senior leaders of Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc parties met the President, the prime minister and the finance minister in New Delhi with their demands and sought stringent measures to tackle fraudulent money pooling activities, including coordinated activities by the Reserve bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Serious Fraud Investigation Office and the CBI.

They said the prime minister and the finance minister expressed concern over the scale of the ponzi scam and assured the leaders that the Centre was taking steps to regulate and check such activities.

Terming the scam by the Saradha Group as an "unprecedented fraud to embezzle huge sums of money" from primarily poorer sections, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said many families have been "ruined" and many victims have committed suicide in the past few weeks.

"By bringing a new legislation (to curb ponzi activities), the Trinamool Congress government is allowing the scamsters to relocate their properties," he said.

"As in the case of the death of SFI leader Sudipta Gupta, we don't have any confidence in any investigation ordered by the Trinamool Congress government into this scam," he said.

Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal assembly Surjyo Kanta Mishra said the new bill has been brought by the state government to "delay the entire process and allow them to find an escape route."

He also termed the state government's withdrawal of a 2003 legislation brought by the erstwhile Left Front government and passed unanimously by the assembly, as "blatantly unconstitutional. Even Trinamool Congress members of Legislative Assembly had then voted in favour."

Alleging that the Trinamool leadership was "hand-in-glove" with the Saradha Group, Mishra said "there is enough evidence to prove this. The state government can take action even now as we had done in the past. But they are not taking any step in that direction."