Meltdown of company triggers suicides in India; Failing to repay investors’ money after the Saradha Group meltdown, an agent and a director of two different deposit mobilising companies committed suicide

May 9, 2013 Leave a comment

Meltdown of company triggers suicides in India

 

Thu, May 09, 2013
The States Man/Asia News Network

Indian activists of the Congress party shout slogans against the arrested Chairman of Saradha group, Sudipta Sen, outside the court in Kolkata on April 25, 2013.

Failing to repay investors’ money after the Saradha Group meltdown, an agent and a director of two different deposit mobilising companies committed suicide. Ten persons have committed suicide in the state so far following the multi-million dollar scam.

Indrajit Roy, one of the directors of Hello India, a chit fund company, committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of a room in his residence off 14 Brindaban Mallick Lane at Amherst Street today.It may be mentioned that the body of Jayanta Sarkar, managing director of the same chit fund company, was found inside his house at Chinsurah in Hooghly.

Police arrested Biplab Biswas from Haringhata late last night in this connection and remanded him in seven days’ police custody after being produced before a court.

Two other suspects, Abhijit Sha and Abdul Rashid, are still at large.

Police came to know after preliminary investigation that Indrajit, Jayanta and another friend of theirs initiated the chit-fund business three years ago.

Indrajit, whose father was a doctor, earlier used to take monthly installments from women and used to sell them utensils at the end of a year against the total deposited amount.

He also used to run an advertisement agency.

Yesterday, police raided his residence following a complaint by his wife and at the same time he was receiving threat calls from depositors of his company, police said. “Apparently, it seems that he committed suicide after failing to return money to agents and investors, but Indrajit’s personal problems cannot be ruled out as a reason that led him to take the step,” the police officer said.

Separately, Mrinal Kanti Mandal (40), an agent of Self Class Enterprises Limited, another chit fund company, committed suicide by consuming poison in his residence at Sangrampur area in Basirhat.

He consumed poison after being insulted by some investors on Sunday.

The agents alleged that Shanta Pasad Mollar, the owner of a chit fund company, fled with a huge amount of money on 28 March. The agents lodged a complaint with Basirhat PS.

Meanwhile, in Burdwan, police raided the offices of two companies and an NGO. In Malda, depositors yesterday ransacked the office of a chit fund company functioning from a building owned by Congress MP Mausam Noor. The MP denied any links with the company.

CBI ready to probe Saradha scam

CBI today affirmed at Calcutta High Court that it is ready to probe the Saradha chit fund scam if the court so orders it.

It will do so if the state government cooperates, providing it with the requisite infrastructure and manpower to investigate the matter.

The CBI together with the RBI and Sebi were made parties in a PIL moved seeking an investigation in the Saradha chit fund scam last week.

It had been moved by a lawyer of the High Court.

A separate Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking action against former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his Cabinet colleague and former state finance minister Asim Dasgupta was also filed that alleges they did not take any action in 2003-04 when the Saradha Group’s chit fund operations had started in the state.

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