CBI to probe all 74 chit fund cases in Tripura, says CM Biplab Deb

The CBI last week had questioned two former Tripura ministers in connection with a Kolkata-based Rose Valley chit fund scam case.

The BJP government in Tripura has handed over all the 74 chit fund cases from the SIT to the CBI to probe the unlawful collection of money from the people by the illegal chit fund organisations during the tenure of the previous Left Front government, chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced here on Sunday.

“We have recently proposed to Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to ask CBI to probe all the 74 cases pending against various chit fund and NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Organisations). The DoPT accordingly agreed to the state government’s proposal,” the Chief Minister told the media.

“The previous Left Front government in various ways backed the unauthorisBiplab Debed chit fund organisations and NBFCs to loot huge amount of money from thousands and lakhs of people. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led government was averse to give all the cases related to chit fund organisations and NBFCs to CBI,” he said.

Deb said his government’s vision was to make Tripura a corruption and drugs free state as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had envisioned for the country.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week questioned former Left Front Finance, PWD and Health minister Badal Chowdhury and former Social Welfare and Social Education Minister Bijita Nath in connection with a Kolkata-based Rose Valley chit fund scam case.

The CBI in June last year questioned Nath and CPI-M central committee member Gautam Das in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

The central agency on Thursday also separately interrogated two former private secretaries of Badal Chowdhury -- Sekhar Datta and Manik Lal Dey -- at the CBI office here over the same chit fund scam.

CPI-M central committee member and party’s state secretary Bijan Dhar said it was widely known that the CBI had been used by the ruling parties at the Centre.

“No CPI-M leader and former Left Front ministers were involved with any chit fund organisations,” Dhar told the media adding that “if CBI wants any information from the party leaders they would share, there is no problem in it”.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) charged the previous Left Front government with promoting illegal chit fund organisations and unauthorised NBFCs in Tripura.

The erstwhile Left Front government in Tripura had enacted a law in 2000 to deal with the illegal NBFCs and chit fund organisations and since 2016 began confiscating all movable and immovable properties of the Rose Valley chit fund organisation in the state.

The Rose Valley is now under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI, and its sole proprietor and Chairman Gautam Kundu was arrested in Kolkata in 2015.

The Tripura High Court had in 2015 asked the state government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the activities of unlawful NBFCs and chit fund organisations.

In May 2013, the earlier Left government had referred 37 cases related to chit fund companies and NBFCs to the CBI. The central probe agency, however, took up only five cases.