ED conducts raids at two places in Bengal in chit fund case

Kolkata: The officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out search operations at two places at Rishra in Hooghly district of West Bengal in connection with a chit fund scam matter.

According to sources, raids were underway at the time of filing this report in the residence of a local businessman, Yugal Mathiaat, in a housing complex - Vidya Apartment, located at NS Road at Rishra.

At the same time, sources said that parallel raids and search operations were being conducted at the residence of another businessman at Bangur area also in Rishra.

The name of the second businessman at whose residence the raid is taking place is yet to be learnt.

Both the ED teams were escorted by the central armed police forces (CAPF) personnel.

The raid and search operations started on Thursday afternoon.

After being 'silent' for quite some time, since the last couple of months, the central investigating agencies have again become active against different Ponzi entities operating out of West Bengal and their directors.

In the last week of November, the ED official arrested two directors of an entity, Prayag Group.

The arrested directors of the entity were Basudeb Bagchi and his son Abhik Bagchi.

The arrests were made after marathon raids and search operations at the different locations linked to the entity including the twin residences of the two arrested directors.

There were various charges against this entity which include illegal collection of public deposits under various multi-level marketing schemes alluring them of hefty returns, parking the same amount outside through the hawala route, duping the investors of not paying them the assured returns after a point of time and money laundering.

West Bengal has a long history of chit funds starting way back in 1980 when the Sanchaita Ponzi scam was busted.

The menace began again in 2012 with the busting of several chit-fund scams with Saradha and Rose Valley scams being the most prominent among them.