KOLKATA: Risin Majumdar, 52, has been working double shifts for the past 10 years, trying to repay a huge loan of Rs 3 million taken as compensation to investors in the Saradha Group, which he once represented.
“After Saradha Group collapsed in 2013, those who had invested through me demanded their money back. I was beaten up and my family was no exception. I was then forced to take a loan of Rs 3 million from a local moneylender. I lost Rs 50 lakh in chit funds,” Majumdar said.
His story is a familiar one to lakhs of people who fell victim to the multi-crore chit fund scam that rocked West Bengal in 2013.
While corruption scandals such as the school recruitment scam have dominated the focus of the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, patient and hopeful victims of the 2013 chit fund scam, one of the state’s biggest financial scandals since independence, are still waiting for justice even after more than a decade.
In the Bengal chit fund scam, several companies, including the Saradha Group, misused investors’ trust by promising high returns.
At its peak in 2012, as many as 200 chit fund companies were operating in Bengal.
More than a decade has passed and the pursuit of justice has yet to be achieved for these victims, whose lives have been forever changed by the deception and betrayal of those to whom they entrusted their life’s savings.
Ashok Barui from Ballygunge and Sairen Pal from Baruipur are the faces of this scandal. Despite being educated, with limited opportunities, they worked as agents for chit fund companies and convinced thousands of people to invest their hard-earned money in them.
Their story is similar to that of many in Bengal, all chasing get-rich-quick dreams only to end up financially ruined.
“I raised Rs 2 million from neighbours, relatives and friends for the Saradha Group. I invested my family’s savings of Rs 10 lakh. I was slapped after the company was shut. I paid back some money from my own pocket but it was too little,” said Siren, the son of an auto driver who worked as an agent for the Saradha Group.
Investors and agents of these Ponzi schemes are spread across the state, with many of them coming from southern Bengal, particularly the eight Lok Sabha constituencies in the 24-state district where elections are being held on June 1.
By 2013, an estimated 20 million depositors had fallen victim to Ponzi schemes involving companies such as Saradha and the Rose Valley Group. Despite investigations by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, the total amount lost by investors remains unknown and is estimated to be over Rs 3 trillion.
“My father invested his life’s savings after retirement but lost it all. During the elections, political parties promised that the case would be resolved soon but nothing happened,” Purnima Kundu said.
In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to hold the culprits accountable and to get money back to duped investors.
Suraksha Manch, a member of an investor and agent body, noted the tragic toll: “Several agents and investors committed suicide after losing their life savings.”
Ashim Chatterjee, convener of Chit Fund Victims Forum, said it was ironic that both the TMC and the BJP were talking about corruption and trying to create a narrative of fighting corruption.
“The TMC tried all its best to thwart the CBI investigation and fought a lengthy legal battle, but the BJP politicised it for political gains,” said Chatterjee, who was a firebrand Naxalite leader in the 70s. PTI.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the Saradha scam which led to the arrest of several prominent TMC leaders and ministers.
A former CBI investigator involved in the initial investigation into the chit fund scam lamented that there has been very little progress in the investigation since 2016.
“But by 2017, most of them had been released on bail. Only Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen remains in jail. The investigation has made little progress even after 10 years,” he said.
“An agreement between the TMC and the BJP has hampered the investigation,” said Nationalist Congress Party leader Abdul Mannan, who was instrumental in building the Saradha chit fund case against the TMC in the Supreme Court along with lawyer and CPI(M) MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
“We tried our best to ensure that depositors and agents get justice. But the BJP used it as a bargaining chip against the TMC and the investigation was compromised,” he said.
CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty charged that the “TMC government is obstructing the process of sale of chit fund properties like Saradha and Rose Valley to repay the defrauded depositors.”
“TMC profited from the scam in the name of the special investigation team, mismanaged the investigation and destroyed evidence,” he said.
The TMC, however, maintained that it was the BJP’s responsibility to answer as to why the survey was yet to be completed.
“The BJP has used this investigation to malign us. But the reality is that the BJP has leaders who were involved in this scam,” TMC spokesperson Santanu Sen said.
BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya denied the allegations and said, “The BJP is committed to fighting corruption.”
Political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty said the Saradha chit fund scam is synonymous with corruption allegations against the TMC but is fast fading from people’s memory.
“The Saradha scam investigation has now become a farce as people do not believe it. There is a perception that both the TMC and the BJP have compromised the investigation for political gains,” he said.
Published May 28, 2024 07:42 IST
