Panel gets 5 lakh petitions from victims of other ponzi

A commission probing the Saradha chit fund scam has received 17 lakh applications, including 5 lakh from people who were defrauded in various ponzi schemes.
The Shyamal Sen Commission, set up last year to look into the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam, said today that it had received 17 lakh applications, of which 5 lakh were from victims of other ponzi schemes.
Sen told a press conference here that the Commission also received petitions from over two lakh people from outside the state.
On April 20, the Calcutta High Court had directed that the Commission should entertain applications by people affected by other ponzi schemes.

Sen said that flats and property seized from the Saradha Group amounted to Rs 1.4 crore in the last one year.
Asked why the Commission could recover only a small fraction of the scam, Sen said "The process is on."

Stating that the first target was to return money to the poorest of the poor, he said that about four lakh people who had invested Rs 10,000 each were given back their money.
Sen also said several people, including two former employees of a magazine and a small time industrialist, who had allegedly received money from Saradha chief Sudipta Sen had been questioned.

The Enforcement Directorate in the last few weeks had arrested Sudipta's second wife Piyali Sen and son Subhojit. Piyali was given bail today, while the judicial remand of Subhojit was extended.