Kolkata:Â Â The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the CBI probe into the collapse of the Saradha Group, a privately-run savings company that left lakhs of small investors bankrupt in west Bengal.
“In view of inter-state ramifications, involvement of higher ups including politicians and aspects of money laundering, a CBI probe is necessary,” the court said. “Â The money trail needs to be traced, the conspiracy angle needs to be probed properly. Not much headway has been made so far,” it added.
Sudipta Sen, the chairman of the Saradha group, is in jail. Top leaders from Mamata Banerjee’s party, TMC, allegedly had close links to him. A Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP, Kunal Ghosh, is in jail for his alleged role in the scam.
The Saradha controversy has been raised by several politicians including BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the campaign for the national election, provoking strong responses from Mamata and her party.
The Saradha group, headquartered in Kolkata, was believed to have been worth around $ 330 crores from money collected from its depositors, according to some reports. The group had also diversified into sectors such as construction, tourism, hospitality, agriculture and media.