Chit fund scam: Left leaders meet PM, seek CBI probe

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Leaders of Left parties today met the Prime Minister and the finance minister and sought a CBI probe into the Ponzi scam in West Bengal and stringent measures to tackle fraudulent money pooling activities.

The Left parties have been demanding a CBI probe alleging that the Mamata Banerjee government was opposed to such an investigation as it would reveal links of her party with the prime movers of the chit fund scam — Saradha Group and others.

The delegation, which included Sitaram Yechury, Basudeb Acharia, Suryakanta Mishra, Asim Dasgupta (all CPI-M), Prabodh Panda (CPI) and Manohar Tirkey (RSP), would also meet President Pranab Mukherjee this evening.

Mishra, who is the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, has earlier claimed that those running Ponzi schemes “provided funds to the ruling Trinamool Congress and a dozen MPs and MLAs would be in trouble if a CBI investigation was conducted” and alleged that they had “a give and take relationship.”

Yechury also has said that the state government’s recent move to enact a new law to protect small depositors was only to provide chit fund operators time to re-locate their properties.

“West Bengal government’s move would provide crucial time to chit fund operators to re-locate their properties. It is just buying time. The Trinamool Congress-led government is protecting chit fund operators,” he had said two days ago.

Left Front MPs and MLAs have over the past two years submitted memoranda to the Centre including the Prime Minister demanding steps to check the mushrooming of Ponzi schemes in West Bengal, saying such companies were fraudulently depriving the poor of their hard-earned income.

The erstwhile Left Front government had enacted a law in 2003 that failed to get Presidential assent.

The Centre has already set up an inter-ministerial group to strengthen coordination among different government agencies to curb fraudulent money raising activities in the wake of Kolkata-based Saradha Group cheating investors through fraudulent money pooling scheme. The group would hold its first meeting on May 16.