BALASORE: IN a significant development, a special court dealing with chit fund cases on Wednesday ordered confiscation of property worth over `4 crore of scam-tainted Saradha Group.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ) of Balasore has directed confiscation of 13.64 acres of land owned by Saradha Realty in Srikona area along Chandipur road in the district. The attached assets are estimated to be around `4.2 crore.
Balasore Additional District Magistrate had appealed the ADJ to pass the order for attachment of immovable property of Saradha Group and Sastra Enterprises Limited which are part of the multi-crore chit fund scam.
Public prosecutor SK Ray said, the interim order of the Finance Department to attach 13.64 acres of land belonging to the company has been made absolute by the special court under Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors (OPID) Act-2011.
“The court has ordered for its public auction and distribution of the proceeds among the needy depositors on a priority basis,” he said.
Saradha Group had allegedly duped thousands of investors in Balasore besides other districts in the State with a promise of attractive returns through its various schemes. The multi-crore chit fund scam had surfaced after the arrest of Saradha Group CMD Sudipta Sen and director Debjani Mukherjee.
Sources said Saradha Group had one of its companies - Saradha Realty India Limited in Balasore and it had purchased land in Balasore district for its future housing projects.
Saradha Group opened around 200 branch offices in the country, including its offices at Balasore, Bhadrak, Berhampur and Bhubaneswar in Odisha.
Earlier, the Crime Branch of police had sealed Saradha’s Balasore branch office and seized at least 12 computers and documents related to investments and various dubious schemes. The company had allegedly collected a deposit of more than `100 crore from Balasore alone.
The Crime Branch sleuths had also arrested two senior officials of Saradha Realty India Limited. The company’s liaison officer Bichitrananda Das and branch manager Basudev Samal are now released on bail.
Sen had made Hemanta Pradhan, his cook and a school drop out of Baliapal area, one of the directors of the Group. Though he was picked up by the CB police of Kolkata, he was later released as he was made a director without his knowledge and it was too acknowledged by the Saradha CMD in a letter to the CBI.