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Saradha chit fund case: Ex-IPS officer, East Bengal FC functionary charged by ED
ED had filed a charge sheet against more than 30 individuals and companies linked to the Saradha group, lawyers monitoring these cases said
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday filed a supplementary charge sheet in the Saradha chit fund case, naming retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rajat Majumdar and senior East Bengal Football Club functionary Debabrata Sarkar as beneficiaries of the financial scam, officials of the federal agency said.
The Saradha investigation was started by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2014 following orders of the Supreme Court.
Both Majumdar, who served in important positions during the erstwhile Left Front regime, and Sarkar were arrested by the CBI in 2014 and later released on bail by the court.
After retiring from service, Majumdar joined the Saradha group of companies as an adviser, an ED official said on condition of anonymity. Neither Majumdar nor Sarkar could be contacted.
ED had filed a charge sheet against more than 30 individuals and companies linked to the Saradha group, lawyers monitoring these cases said.
The filing of the supplementary charge sheet on Monday triggered speculations in political circles that the federal agencies might step up their probes into various chit fund scams in which several leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) are suspects.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged at several public meetings in the recent months that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre was using federal agencies for political gains before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In August 2021, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh was also named by the ED in a supplementary charge sheet alongside a senior journalist Suman Chattopadhyay. Both were charged with money laundering.
TMC Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen alleged on Tuesday that both ED and CBI were being “politically used in non-BJP ruled states”.
“This is being done at the behest of the party at the Centre although the conviction rate of both the agencies is very poor. Why haven’t the agencies questioned BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari even once although he is a prime accused in the CBI’s first information report in the Saradha case?” Sen told HT.
No BJP leader was willing to react to Sen’s comment.
