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Bengal Ponzi schemes’ victims struggle to get their money back
As many as 219 chit fund companies operated in Bengal at one time in the early 2010s; 147 of these, where people had together invested about ₹2.5 lakh crore, are now fighting cases that at are at various stages in the Calcutta high court.
In 2010 Shamima Bibi, a resident of Jalpaiguri in north Bengal sold the four bighas of land (about 70,000 sq ft) she owned — the land yielded two crops a year— and invested in a scheme that promised her money would double in four years.
An agent of the scheme operator I-Core arranged a buyer, and the sale proceeds of ₹8 lakh went straight to the company. Shamina Bibi got the monthly returns of ₹16,000 for about six months before they abruptly stopped.
Now Bibi, 52, sells peanuts at New Jalpaiguri station, and like 25 million others in West Bengal, is waiting to get her money back. People from all sections of society — retired government officials, salaried class, farmers, businessmen, poor, housewives — invested in companies that mushroomed across the state in early 2010 and then, just as suddenly, vanished three to four years later.
Tragic stories abound: Tushar Gayen, 47, a fruit vendor at Mathurapur railway station and his wife Kanak, 39, who works as a maid in Kolkata deposited their entire savings (meant for the marriage of their daughter) into a one-time deposit scheme run by Saradha group of companies that promised monthly returns of ₹5,000 for five years, after which the original amount was to be returned with some bonus.
“Ignoring warnings by a relative, we invested our savings, sold some ornaments and took a loan to deposit the money. For the first six-seven months, ₹5,000 came every month. Then, both, the money and the agent, vanished. We somehow paid back our loans, but we do not have money to arrange for our daughter’s marriage,” said Kanak Gayen.
As many as 219 chit fund companies operated in Bengal at one time in the early 2010s; 147 of these, where people had together invested about ₹2.5 lakh crore, are now fighting cases that at are at various stages in the Calcutta high court. In 36 of these cases, the court ordered a refund through the sale of assets of the companies by a court-appointed committee. West Benal chief minister Mamata Banerjee set up Shyamal Sen commission to identify the culprits, confiscate and sell their properties, and refund depositors. So far, the refund process has started for depositors of only one company.
Ibrahim Haldar, an agent for a 24-Parganas based chit fund company who was tied to an electric pole and beaten up, recalled that after the Saradha group collapsed in 2013, depositors in all Ponzi schemes started asking agents to return their money.
“The heads of the companies escaped leaving us to bear the brunt of investors. Many of them are still evading arrest,” said the once-prosperous Haldar, who now lives in a small house with a family of four and works as a painter to earn a living.
Pressure from depositors forced some agents such as Biswanath Chakraborty to pay back investors from their own pocket.
Chakraborty, who was doing well in his zari embroidery business before turning into an agent-cum-investor for a chit fund company, sold his house and car to pay back more than 60% of the ₹24 lakh he collected from investors after the company closed shop one day in 2013. He had also invested ₹6 lakh, his savings, in the company. “I am reconciled to the idea that my money has evaporated,” lamented Chakraborty, who now works as a delivery man for a food delivery firm.
Haldar and Chakraborty are both members of the Chit Fund Sufferers’ Unity Forum that led several mass agitations between 2013 and 2016, before losing steam. “It became difficult for us to continue the movement beyond three years, especially because we were all penniless,” said Jayanta Haldar, a duped agent-cum-investor of the Prayag group.
The stream of Ponzi schemes led to an intense political battle in Bengal with a string of ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including four MPs — Sudip Banerjee, Tapas Paul, Kunal Ghosh and Srinjay Bose — being arrested for their alleged involvement in these schemes, especially the ones run by the Saradha group and Rose Valley. Even Mukul Roy, who left the TMC to join the BJP, was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the scam. Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) president Amit Shah commented on a recent visit to the state that more TMC leaders would land in jail for their role in these schemes.
But the victims are unmoved by these investigations even as CBI special director Rakesh Asthana last week ordered a quick completion of the probe into the Saradha case. “CBI rakes up the Saradha issue every time an election is round the corner. All our hopes lie with the judiciary now,” said Sahjahan Mondal, an agent-cum-depositor of Saradha who has been waiting for five years to get back more than ₹10 lakh.
“The state government was busy protecting leaders of the ruling party, while the Centre used the Saradha investigation as a tool for political mileage,” alleged Debasish Sarkar, principal of Chandernagar Government College. Both the BJP and TMC deny the allegations.
But there are troubles ahead for investors, even if the court orders sale of property and return of their money. “In many cases, confiscated property identified for auction are not getting a proper price. Now the government should step in to buy them...” said Chakraborty.”
