Kolkata: The human toll in West Bengal’s multi billion rupee chit fund muddle rose to four, with another agent of the tainted Saradha Group committing suicide, while a second FIR was filed yesterday against Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh by employees of a Bengali daily run by the chit fund-aided company.
The agent Swapan Kumar Biswas, who had deposited over Rs400,000, was found hanging at his home in Purulia district on Friday night. Biswas’ family claimed he was suffering from depression after the group went bust and downed shutters across the state, affecting lives of tens of thousands of depositors from poor families who had parked their hard-earned money in the firm.
The Saradha fiasco threatens to engulf other such chit fund companies — a large number of which operate in the state. The offices of many of them were rocked by protests by depositors and agents, who demonstrated outside for hours seeking immediate return of their money.
Many of these concerns running collective investment schemes have been splashing large display advertisements in leading dailies every day claiming deposits in their companies were safe, but that has failed to dissipate the mood of anger and panic that has taken over the society in the wake of the Saradha collapse.
A chit fund driven company, Tower Group organised a media meet to assure investors, but its chairman had to cancel the conference abruptly after he was besieged by angry journalists rendered jobless after the firm closed down its publications.
Under fire for his alleged complicity in the chit fund muddle, Trinamool Congress MP Ghosh wrote to party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pleading innocence and offering to quit.
“I am ready to resign if you instruct me to do so. I am ready to face any investigation and I am also ready to cooperate with the investigation process,” Ghosh said in the letter posted on the party’s official website.
Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen, behind bars and facing prosecution for cheating, had written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), accusing several high profile Trinamool Congress and Congress leaders, including Ghosh, of complicity in the chit fund scam.
IANS
