India
The Bengal chief minister, expectedly, has complained of being targeted by the Modi government ahead of the elections, but a long list of suicides and murders in the wake of the Saradha scam bear testimony to how the lives of poor depositors were ripped apart.
Kolkata/New Delhi: Mamata Banerjee is on the back foot ahead of the general election with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) going on the offensive in the cases related to the Rs 37,000-crore chit fund scam.
The Bengal chief minister, expectedly, has complained of being targeted by the Modi government ahead of the elections, but a long list of suicides and murders in the wake of the Saradha scam bear testimony to how the lives of poor depositors were ripped apart.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and many top Trinamool Congress leaders are alleged to have been involved in the Saradha ponzi scam.
1. Ranjit Pramanik: A zari worker from the Jainagar locality in Kolkata's adjoining South 24 Parganas district hanged himself with a nylon rope from the ceiling following the chitgate.
Pramanik, who also worked as a local barber in a shop, had invested all his savings, worth Rs 3,000, in the scheme. He was promised a return of Rs 7,500 in four years. Hearing that the company went bust, he committed suicide after buying the rope himself.
2. Ajit Seal: Seal who ran a chit fund company in the name of his daughter ‘Aparupa’, committed suicide in the same district’s Falta area. He owned over 150 offices across the state. He had collected a large amount of small savings from thousands of investors. He hanged himself after getting buried under the burden of debt. He had also slit his wrists. In his suicide note, he wrote that he was forced to take the extreme step as he could not return money to his investors.
3. Urmila Pramanik: The resident of Baruipur had committed suicide following Saradha scam. She had invested a total sum of Rs 30,000 in Saradha Group’s small-savings deposit scheme.
4. Tapan Biswas: Hailing Purulia’s Balarampur, he killed himself under the duress of the scam. Biswas had invested nearly Rs 60,000.
5. Lakshman Ghorui: An agent of the Saradha Group had tried to end his life by consuming poison due to monetary duress post the scam. The agent was a resident of Kalinagar near Diamond Harbour. Ghorui had collected around Rs 60 lakh from small investors.
6. Tapasi Singha: She was also an agent of the chit fund company and consumed sleeping pills in a bid to kill herself. Singha had collected Rs 5,30,000.
7. Shankar Baruah: The former director general of police of Assam and a 1974-batch Indian Police Service officer shot himself with his own revolver. His house was raided in connection with the scam.
8. Jayanta Sarkar: A director of Hello India chit fund company was allegedly murdered by suspected depositors at his house, which was situated in Chunchura in Hooghly district. According to police FIR, three accused, Abhijit Saha and Abdullah Rashid from Coochbehar and Biplab Biswas from Haringhata, killed him.
9. Jagadish Roy: The 60-year-old father of chit fund agent Bidhan Roy, was found hanging at his home at Rishi Bankim Gar colony in Sodepur.
10. Swapan Kumar Biswas: A money collection agent of the Saradha group, hung himself to death at his residence at Balrampur in Purulia district. Biswas had invested his savings, worth Rs four lakh in the scam-ridden company.
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