CPI(M) today accused the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal of delaying the attachment of properties of Saradha and about 25 other such firms in the state and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the chit fund fraud along with immediate refund for the hapless small investors.
"The loss of time in attaching their properties is permitting these companies to clandestinely transfer their assets. We feel there is a complicity of the state government in blocking investigations and not attaching the properties," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told a press conference here.
Asserting that Bengal government should refund investors' money through an auction of the assets of these companies as per the laid-down legal norms, he said the state government's move to "dole out some money out of its coffers to some of the lakhs of small investors who have invested their life's savings" was also illegal.
Observing that the amount defrauded by these companies totalled to about Rs 1 lakh crore, including about Rs 30,000 crore by Saradha, he pointed out that the Rs 500 crore fund created by the state government to provide succour to the investors was "less than one per cent of the total".
Yechury and the state's Leader of Opposition Surjyokanta Mishra were talking to reporters after meeting Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot to seek speedy action against the said chit-fund firms. They also released a copy of the letter by them to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.
"We urge you to intervene in this matter so that payment to all depositors is made with adequate promptness by attaching the properties of Saradha Group in accordance with law and as also directed by the SEBI (April 23, 2013) and not by giving grant through the Commission, which is not legal, as mentioned above," the letter said.
It added that this process should start immediately with focus on attachment and disposal of properties, along with punishment for the offending firm.
