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CBI arrests founder of Bengal-based ponzi company that raised Rs 500 crore
The Pailan group’s agents were first to complain against the company in 2014 when they accused the firm of failing to pay the returns promised to investors.
Apurba Saha, founder-chairman of Pailan group, a Bengal-based investment company, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Kolkata on Tuesday after hours of interrogation.
The Pailan group, which shut down operations more than two years ago, allegedly raised more than Rs 500 crore from investors by promising high returns. Saha will be produced in a city court on Wednesday.
CBI officers also searched Saha’s south Kolkata residence and his offices in two districts, an agency official said on condition of anonymity.
The Pailan group’s agents were the first to complain against the company in 2014 when they accused the firm of failing to pay the returns promised to investors and staged a demonstration outside the company office.
CBI has been investigating several Ponzi companies such as Saradha and Rose Valley since 2014 when the Supreme Court told the agency to investigate scams and the role of ‘influentials’ in the money laundering.
The Saradha group scam began to unravel in the first quarter of 2013 when investors protested outside the Trinamool Congress office in Kolkata to demand action against the group’s officials for defaulting on payments. A few months later, the group’s chairman, Sudipta Sen and executive director, Debjani Mukherjee were arrested by the state police from Jammu and Kashmir.
The high-profile Saradha scam is estimated to involve about Rs 2,400 core.
But it is the Rose Valley scam, estimated at Rs 17,000 core, which is believed to be the state’s biggest ponzi scheme.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing both scams.
In August this year, CBI questioned Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary-general and Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi scams respectively.
The ED questioned three-time TMC MP and film actor Satabdi Roy on her alleged transactions with the Saradha Group. Roy had written to the ED expressing her willingness to pay back about Rs 29 lakh that she had earned as the brand ambassador of Saradha.
Earlier, TMC Rajya Sabha MPs Srinjay Bose and Kunal Ghosh and then West Bengal minister Madan Mitra were arrested in connection with the Saradha scam, while TMC Lok Sabha MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Pal were arrested in connection with the Rose Valley scam.
