Pressure is mounting on the West Bengal government and the Trinamool Congress in the Saradha case with both the Centre and the Calcutta High Court preparing ground for an extensive investigation.
The Centre has asked the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to start separate investigations in the case, right from the formation of the Saradha Group 12 years ago to its rise and debacle in a span of three years.
Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Arun Mishra has also pitched for a CBI inquiry, saying it was a huge scam spread out in various states and involving a number of political leaders.
?Why shouldn?t there be a CBI inquiry into it?? Justice Mishra asked, responding to a PIL filed by advocate Basabi Roychowdhury.
The RBI and the Sebi will also initiate separate investigations into 73 companies in West Bengal identified by the ministry of corporate affairs for taking illegal deposits. All this is likely to put immense pressure on the state government and the Trinamool Congress because many TMC MPs and MLAs are learnt to be closely associated with such businesses.
An official in the ministry of corporate affairs said not less than R4,000 crore have been pumped out of the country and the SFIO has been asked to probe this angle.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday told reporters that a huge amount of money must have gone out of the country and that it was difficult to trace it.
?Generally such money, illegally taken from the people, doesn?t stay within the county. It goes to foreign land for circulation. People like Sudipta Sen keep a number of wives in India and abroad and all of them except one have the status of divorcee. I know he has one real wife and three-four divorced wives and he must have transferred huge sums in their names,? Banerjee said.
Saradha Group had 166 companies under its fold ? the highest number of companies under any group ? and one of them was engaged in exports of Bengal handicraft, jewellery and saris. SFIO has ascertained that Saradha Group carried out trade with 50 cities across the globe, with the main centres being London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris, Barcelona, Boston, New York, Milan, Auckland, Singapore, Capetown and Dubai.