29-year-old Swapan Das wanted to pay for the treatment of his Thalassaemia-afflicted young wife. He invested at least Rs 10,000 into one of Saradha Group’s chit funds.
31-year-old Kallol Basu invested over Rs 30,000 in two separate chit fund companies, Saradha and Rose Valley Groups.
62-year-old Mohd Abutaleb Ghazi invested Rs 20,000 in chit fund company, Self-Trust Enterprises Ltd to compensate for the meagre sales from his tiny shop.
There are scores of similar stories of compulsion, greed and abject poverty that pushed lakhs of people in West Bengal into the ready claws of chit fund businesses. The investment was low and the promised returns sometimes double or treble the principal amount. The attraction had to be fatal. Swapan, Kallol and Abutaleb are just few of the numerous small depositors in the state who are staring at an uncertain future having squandered their life’s savings. “For us, even Rs 20,000 is a lot. It’s all that we have saved and to think that it’s all gone,” said Abutaleb shaking his head. And it’s not just the loss of Saradha’s investors; several chit fund businesses have wound up overnight in the aftermath of the scandal leaving a trail of gloom and death.
Forty-two-year-old Mrinal Kanti Mondal of Sangrampur village in North 24 Parganas district couldn’t tolerate the constant heckling of friends-turned-foes. He consumed poison and died two days later leaving behind a distraught wife, two young daughters and a debt of over Rs 7.5 lakh. “They were his friends but once the Saradha Group chit fund went bust, they started abusing and disrespecting him. They would catch him on the road, in the marketplace, anywhere they could and would demand their money,” said Mondal’s wife Rupali pulling her five-year old daughter, Disha, a little closer. Jagadish Roy, 60, who was the father of a chit fund agent, was tied to a lamp-post, face blackened with shoe polish and publicly beaten with slippers by women. Roy hung himself in his house in Sodepur; his son Bidhan is still missing. An investor who lost `30,000 set herself on fire in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas while three agents belonging to Saradha Group committed suicide. Three depositors allegedly strangled Hello India agent, Jayanta Sarkar, with wires in the middle of the night in Chinsurah even as they told his wife Piyali before leaving the house that he had fallen asleep. The death toll in the fall-out of the Saradha chit fund is now 10 and counting.
Panic-stricken depositors across the state are scrambling to get their funds back from what they call the “money market”. There are at least 72 known chit funds currently operating in the state. With government agencies turning their attention to Ponzi schemes and chit funds shutting shop, it’s the disturbing story of neighbour turning against neighbour.
Sandeep Bhowmick collected Rs 8 lakh as an agent for Saradha Group in Chinsurah and is busy preparing the details of all his investors to submit to the Justice (Retired) Shyamal Sen Committee constituted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “I don’t know how I will return the money. I fear for my life, I fear for my future. I hope the authorities can recover the money from Sudipta Sen,” Bhowmick said.
Meanwhile, the man of the hour, Sudipta Sen, is a shadow of his former self. He breaks down during questioning, beats his head against prison bars and looks away wistfully into the distance as court proceedings continue. His aide, Debjani Mukherjee, though is calm and collected; hair neatly tied even as the layers of make-up are missing. This receptionist-to-director queen bee is ready to turn state witness as she leads police detectives to various assets of the Saradha Group.
Sudipta has confessed to paying at least Rs 400 crore to keep politicians and police officers on his pay-roll. He also said that he owed Rs 2,100 crore to investors, a huge hike from the initial Rs 400 crore and a figure that investigators believe could escalate further. Police say they have information about 254 bank accounts belonging to Saradha Group. Of these, police sources say 40 are empty while 50 others have negligible balance.
Causing much discomfort to Mamata and the TMC, Sudipta has already accused influential party leaders such as Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose. “Let the investigation finish. I will reveal everything,” he ominously warns. The kingpin is going down and he will take many others with him.
The Sunday Standard