The CBI probing the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam will soon begin recording statements of several among lakhs of agents of the group company accused in the case and some of them are likely to be made case witnesses.
One of the Saradha Group companies, Saradha Realty India ltd (SRIl) had alone employed 2.21 lakh agents for collection of money from the gullible investors. The agents formed main part of the dubious operations of the companies in evolving fraudulent schemes, explaining them to the public and collecting deposits.
The agents were paid commission on each cash deposit from the business generated. As much as 30 per cent of the collections were paid to the agents as commission, the remaining amount was spent on running company expenses and deposited in the nearest bank branch or sent to the company’s head office.
The agency, sources said, will also seek clarifications from nearly 100 bank branches where cash collections by the group companies were deposited. The companies had collected an estimated Rs 2,459 crore from the investors through the network of 320 branches of as many as 160 companies incorporated by the group within a span of five years. The group companies including SRIl never utilised the collected money for carrying out any legitimate business to earn profits in order to pay lakhs of investors the promised return ranging between 10 and 18 per cent.
The agency is also probing the huge gap in the amount of money collected by SRIl and investments made in real estate. While the group collected over Rs 2450 crore, the purchase value of the properties acquired by the group was only worth Rs 40 crore. The remaining money was utilized for running the offices, fleet of cars, rentals, daily expenses and salaries of the huge staff. A significant portion of the collected cash is suspected to have been used in international money laundering and terror funding, an issue also being probed by Intelligence agencies.