Desperate to contain the fallout of the Saradha scam, the government is now moving at breakneck speed. On Friday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her senior ministers met governor MK Narayanan and handed him the draft of a bill that the government is eager to introduce and pass in the Assembly.
The meltdown of the Saradha Group and subsequent focus on the state's multiple ponzi scams are hitting Bengal's film industry where it hurts the most - right in the pocket.
Anindita Acharya reports.
The filmi connection
Tainted Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former CEO of media companies owned by Saradha Group, Kunal Ghosh wants to quit. Ghosh, in a letter to CM Mamata Banerjee also pleaded his innocence.
HT reports.
The Mamata Banerjee administration is doing its best to address the fallout of the chit fund meltdown, but it is not enough, remarked governor M K Narayanan today.
HT reports.
The most prominent member of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), the United Bank of India (UBI), had earlier warned the West Bengal government of the inevitable financial fraud that was waiting to happen, much before the Saradha scam broke. However, the government chose not to pay any heed to the advice and now the bank is not willing to give any further suggestions on the issue.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is probing the role of 13 cooperative banks in West Bengal where the tainted Saradha Group managed to park funds for conducting illegal transactions.
At a time when the Saradha meltdown has left scores of investors and depositors fretting over the fate of their savings parked at the rogue concern and other sham firms, many similar units with offices in West Midnapore continue to fleece gullible locals with lucrative offers and the promise of lands among other inducements.
The probe into the Saradha money scam is set to pick up pace with both Calcutta High Court and the Centre stepping into the scene.
Police in eastern India have arrested a local businessman for allegedly raping a US charity worker, an official said today, as anger grows over the high incidence of sexual crime in the country.
West Bengal Governor M KNarayanan on Friday sidestepped a question on whether a CBI inquiry was needed into the Saradha financial scam saying that inquiries were going on.
Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen's flight to escape justice might well have succeeded if his need to monitor the day-to-day developments in Bengal on TV had not proved to be his Achilles' heel.
Microblogging site Twitter is abuzz with scorn and ridicule for the arrested Saradha Group promoter, Sudipta Sen, whose company went bust after collecting money from lakhs of unsuspecting depositors in West Bengal.
The meltdown of Sudipta Sen’s Saradha Group has not only hit the rural poor in Bengal, it has also shaken the Trinamool Congress – the invincible pyramid with Mamata Banerjee at the top.
Ravik Bhattacharya reports.
Sudipta's letter names Chidambaram's wife Nalini
The Calcutta high court on Thursday directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit on the steps it has taken against the Saradha Group and also directed the company not make any financial transaction till further orders.
Trinamool Congress MP Ambica Banerjee today died at a private hospital in Kolkata, family sources said.