The Central Bureau of Investigation is quietly preparing the swindlers’ list involving a ‘set of politicians who may have played a role’ in Saradha’s money laundering racket.
And the premier investing agency may soon call the politicians for questioning, who could belong to Bengal, sources in the investigation agency have said. Though the red diary of Sudipto Sen has gone missing allegeldy from the custody of the State police who were earlier questioning him, the agency has managed to extract the names of a number of beneficiaries including political persons, club tycoons and businessmen after intense grilling of the jailed Saradha chief and Saradha director Debjani Mukherjee, sources said adding some police officers who were earlier involved in questioning the chit fund accused could also be grilled “if need be.”
The investigators have prima facie got an idea of how the politicians used to extract money from Sen who has reportedly alleged that too much meddling of the netas into his affairs led to the chit fund balloon burst before time.It has been revealed by Sen and Mukherjee that the politicians extracted huge amount of money from Sen mainly in two ways: First by using “blunt threat” and second as a quid pro quo for help they promised to him when the SEBI and Reserve Bank warned him against the illegal ways of raising money.
The Saradha chit fund company had raised several thousand crores from the depositors promising high returns. Subsequently that money was diverted to other channels including for political purposes triggering a crash in the Sen’s ponzi fund empire affecting some 18 lakh people.
Amid allegations of ruling party-Saradha nexus in the scam Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee handed over the probe to a Special Investigation Team which, however, made little headway. This even as the Opposition complained suppression of facts against the Government. Finally the Supreme Court handed the probe over to the CBI.
On when such leaders would be summoned for investigation, sources in the investigating agency said that they were preparing the list and collecting evidence much of which had been done. “Only when the process is complete” the high and mighty involved in the scam would be summoned, sources said.