The CBI on Wednesday registered a record number of cases, 46 in all, in its probe into the Rs 10,000 crore Saradha chit-fund scam, naming Trinamool Congress' sitting Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh as one of the accused.
Ghosh was earlier Saradha group's chief executive officer (Saradha Media) and was arrested last November by the West Bengal police. Supreme Court had last month handed over the Saradha scam to the CBI.
Out of the 46 cases, three were fresh ones lodged in West Bengal by the CBI that included several allegations culled from cases filed by the state police while the other 43 were registered in Odisha after converting cases filed by the state police. "The allegations in the 46 cases pertain to cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy," said CBI's spokesperson Kanchan Prasad.
"The quantum of the scam is worth Rs 10,000 crore but the CBI will have determine exactly how much individual investors were duped of by the accused firms," said a CBI source. According to the source, the role of regulatory bodies like Sebi, RBI and the ministry of corporate affairs will be examined even as the agency prepares to file more cases soon after scrutinising Saradha Group's documents.
In the 43 cases registered in Odisha, CBI has named as accused persons including Pradeep Sethi, then managing director of Artha Tatwa group, Prashant Das of Sea Shore Group and other senior officials firms including Rose Valley Micro-finance, the Saradha group and Astha International, said the source.
{{/usCountry}}In the 43 cases registered in Odisha, CBI has named as accused persons including Pradeep Sethi, then managing director of Artha Tatwa group, Prashant Das of Sea Shore Group and other senior officials firms including Rose Valley Micro-finance, the Saradha group and Astha International, said the source.
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