Sell my property and make payment to depositors: Sudipta

Chit fund company Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen today appealed to the Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen Commission to arrange for the sale of his property and make payment to all depositors from the sale proceed.

Sen, whose company went bust after failing to repay investors mostly in the districts, claimed his assets were adequate enough to meet the purpose.

Briefing reporters on the deposition by Sen before the Commission, Justice Sen said that the founder-promoter of the company claimed that the total number of assets covering real estates and vehicles he possessed were sufficient enough to make payment to all depositors.
Sen also told the Commission that out of 160 companies altogether, only 12 companies were involved in any major activity and four of them were mainly involved with monetary transactions, Justice Sen said.

Giving a list of his officials who looked after the financial and real estate matters of the company, Sen said that he did not remember details about the finance and real estate matters, but interrogation of the officials, including Tarun Roy and Ashok Biswas, would reveal the details.

The four major companies involved in the financial transactions of the company were Saradha Construction Company Ltd, Saradha Realty India Ltd, Saradha Garden and Resorts India Ltd and Saradha Tours and Travels Company Ltd.

Apart from this, an investment of about Rs 25 crore had been made for setting up two schools in Siliguri area. Both the schools are still running well by a committee formed by their management after the fall of his company, he deposed.

Justice Sen said that in his deposition, the Saradha Group chairman said he had already filed an affidavit before the division bench of Calcutta High Court with his appeal to sell his property and make payment to all depositors.

The Calcutta High Court accordingly had directed the Commission to make arrangement in this regard, Justice Sen said.

However, this would take some time to assess the value of total assets and liabilities, Justice Sen said.

Sen in his deposition admitted that he had committed mistake by inviting investment through recurring and fixed deposits through the companies like Saradha Garden and Resorts India Ltd and Saradha Tours and Travels Company Ltd.

His companies had no legal right to draw investment through recurring and fixed deposit, which the Banks can do, Justice Sen said.

Sen also told the Commission that he had committed a blunder by making a substantial amount of investment in media business comprising both electronic and print media, which was the reason of his abrupt downfall.

Had there been no such investment in media, he could have overcome the hurdles through financial restructuring, but this had not happened and his image was tarnished, Sen told the Commission.

The long deposition before the three-member Commission headed by Justice Sen continued for about three hours, which was done amidst tight security.

Justice Sen said that payment to 800 depositors would be made before the Durgapuja festival, while processing was on for making payment to nearly one lakh more depositors soon.

Initially payment would be made to those having a deposit upto Rs 10,000 with their dates of maturity within the year 2013.

So far the Commission has heard nearly 8,000 depositors. 17.39 lakh depositors had registered their complaints with the Commission.

"I have written to the chief minister saying I have full faith in the state police and detectives. But since the allegation revolved around me, I want a CBI inquiry," Ghosh said.

He alleged that the police did not call those under whose leadership it (scam) has taken place.
The TMC MP also said he feared for his life if he has to open his mouth in future.

Satabdi Roy said though Sikha Mitra was a housewife- turned-politican, she had curved out her own place as a politician.

Sikha Mitra had hailed the recent protests by villagers at Kamduni in the state’s North 24-Parganas district against the rape and murder of a 20-year-old college girl there last month.

She had earlier dared the Trinamool leadership to take action against her for speaking the “truth”.

On December 12 last year, Trinamool had suspended her for an “indefinite period” accusing her of "anti-party activity".