The CBI on Thursday conducted searches at 30 locations across West Bengal and Odisha on the official and residential premises of the accused, including the sitting Biju Janata Dal MP Ram Chandra Hansda, in the multi-crore Saradha scam.

During the searches, the CBI recovered Rs28 lakh in cash from the residence of Hansda, founder of Nava Diganta Capital, and a bank FD of Rs22 lakh and Rs4.90 lakh cash from the house of Sanyasi Pradhan, another founder member and director of the same company.The CBI also searched the residential premises of former BJD MlA Subarna Naik and former BJP MlA Hitesh Kumar Bagartti. Hansdah, Naik and Bagartti are founder members and directors of Nava Diganta Capital Services ltd, which has been booked as the accused company.

The investigators will question Hansda and Pradhan about the source of the cash and investment recovered during the searches. During searches in Odisha at 20 different locations, including residential and official premises of founder members, directors, office-bearers and other employees of Bhubaneshwar-based Nava Diganta Capital Services, a lot of incriminating documents have been seized, official sources said.

Searches in West Bengal at 10 locations, including 5 residential premises of arrested accused persons of Saradha Realty and Saradha Travels, have yielded incriminating documents relating to various business transactions between these accused companies, the sources said.The CBI has so far registered 47 cases, including three in West Bengal and 44 in Odisha in the alleged chit fund scam on the directions of the Supreme Court of India.

After the agency indicated that West Bengal police officials would be booked for failing to provide the documents related to the scam despite reminders, the State Police has now assured every help in the probe. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha had recently met West Bengal DGP GMP Reddy, who assured him to cooperate in the probe.