Chit fund scam : Mamata forms SIT; blames Centre

Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced a high-level inquiry and also a SIT probe into the collapse of chit fund company Saradha Group that has left thousands of investors in the lurch even as she sought to blame the Centre for the fiasco.

A PIL was, meanwhile, filed in the Calcutta High Court seeking a CBI probe into the chit fund scam. It also demanded the arrest of Trinamool Congress-nominated Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, who is Saradha Media's executive chairman, alleging complicity in the matter.

Breaking her silence over the Saradha scam which has cost at least one life after a 50-year-old woman set herself on fire, Banerjee said after a high-level meeting on the subject that a SIT under the DGP would be formed and that retired Calcutta High Court judge Justice (retd) Shyamal Kumar Sen would head the four-member Commission of Inquiry.

The Chief Minister also said that a draft for promulgating an Ordinance to give more teeth for regulation of operations of chit fund companies was ready. Stating that strong laws were needed to curb the illegal activities of chit funds, Banerjee said since their operations were governed by central laws and not by the state government, "the onus lies with the central governmeant."