Chit fund scam: Nine dead, will more casualties follow?

Kolkata: As the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam rages on, the related loss of life continued in West Bengal with three more people linked to ponzi firms committing suicide, taking the death count to nine. The body of Jagdish Roy, whose son Bidhan used to operate a chit fund firm and owed over Rs.1 crore to investors, was found hanging at his house in North 24 Parganas district’s Sodepur on Sunday night. [caption id=“attachment_756249” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sudipta Sen, chairman of the fraudulent Saradha group. AFP.[/caption] His family alleged that angry investors had ransacked his house a few days ago and assaulted him. “He was deeply shocked by the assault and could not bear the humiliation,” Roy’s daughter Dola said. According to a NDTV report, the 60-year-old was heckled, tied up to a poll and even slapped by a young girl in the mob led by his neighbours. The daughters of 55-year-old neighbour Mira Bose have been arrested following a complaint lodged by Roy’s family. The report also mentions that Bose and the Roys used to be great friends before the Saradha chit fund scam broke. However, after the Saradha meltdown happened and Roy’s son went absconding because he failed to pay back the investors in his chit fund, relations soured. In Hooghly district’s Chinsurah, Jayanta Sarkar, who used to run a small deposit- seeking firm, hanged himself Sunday night. Police said that over the last few days, Sarkar was hounded by angry investors demanding their money back. In another case of distressed agents and collective scheme operators committing suicide, 30-year-old Sanjay Sarkar, an agent with a chit fund company, ended his life. Police have found suicide notes from both Jayanta and Sanjay Sarkar. Shyamsundar Mukherjee, a retired school teacher who worked as an agent of the tainted Saradha Group, died following cerebral attack in Birbhum district’s Nalhati. His family blamed stress and humiliation caused due to the collapse of the company. His family said the 64-year-old was under stress and felt humiliated to have joined a company whose promoter Sudipta Sen was arrested and is being prosecuted for cheating. The chit fund meltdown claimed its first life on April 21 when a 50-year-old domestic help immolated herself after news broke that the saradha chit fund had gone bust. Urmila Pramanik had invested her life’s savings of Rs 30,000 in Saradha. With the government turning its heat on other chit fund companies like Rose Valley and the MPS group, there will be no easy end to the casualties of dubious chit fund schemes. IANS