By Kanchan Gupta on April 25, 2013
Senior Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy is absolutely right when he says that a cheat’s allegations cannot be taken at face value. He was responding to a television anchor’s taunting questions about the Trinamool Congress’s connections with Saradha, the chit fund company that has turned turtle, sinking the fortunes of thousands of families, most of them from the lower income group, across several States.
Sudipta Sen, the fraud who operated the scam with more than ample political protection, purchased at a high price paid in cash to individuals, has released a letter he has written to the CBI. In this letter he has mentioned several names and levelled various allegations. It could well be a ploy to distract attention from his misdeeds. Or the charges could be true. Only a fair investigation can determine the truth.
One of the names mentioned by Sudipta Sen is Nalini Chidambaram who was allegedly paid Rs 42 crore towards ‘legal fees’. The charge is as yet unproved and may turn out to be entirely baseless. Also, it remains unknown what legal representation or service was offered by her, if she was indeed paid this kind of money. A PTI report quotes “sources close to Nalini Chidambaram” denying the allegations. But, as I said, the facts can be affirmed only through an impartial inquiry.
TMC questions Saradha payment to ‘lady lawyer’
Newspapers and news channels have been pitiless in naming (and, in the process, shaming) individuals, especially those associated with the Trinamool Congress, mentioned by Sudipta Sen in his letter. But barring The Hindu and The Telegraph, no other media organisation has named Nalini Chidambaram. The lame excuse that has been offered is remarkably laughable: Since there is no evidence, it is only fair she should not be named.
It’s laughable because such high concern for journalistic ethics has never prevented mainstream media from manufacturing, flinging and repeating the wildest allegations against Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Such highfalutin bunk about ‘basics of journalism’ has not stopped mainstream media from defaming and vilifying Narendra Modi for more than a decade.
Yet, when it comes to Nalini Chidambaram, our media daredevils turn into timid pussy cats, purring their allegiance to journalistic ethics. This tells its own shameful story, a story about abhorrent mainstream media duplicity.
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/25/saradha-scam-and-medias-duplicity-70506.html
STUNG TMC TURNS TABLES ON CONG
Friday, 26 April 2013 | PNS | New Delhi/Kolkata
While Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his wife Nalini kept a stony silence on the accusation against the latter in the explosive revelation made by tainted chit fund owner Sudipta Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday seized the opportunity to target the duo.
Lambasting certain media houses and the Congress for only highlighting the alleged role of their MPs — Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Ghosh — in the Bengal chit fund scam, TMC said either Chidambaram or Nalini should clarify Nalini’s deals with Saradha Group’s CMD Sudipta Sen. Reminding that ‘Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion’, TMC posed five questions to Chidambaram and his wife to answer.
“Page 10 of Sudipta Sen’s letter to the CBI has thrown up piquant and important questions in relation to the role of a lady lawyer from Chennai, the wife of a senior Congress Minister, in the goings-on of the Saradha Group and its bucket-shop operations. These questions need to be clarified by the lady and/or her husband:
Q1. Senior Advocates are usually barred from meeting clients directly. Why did the lady lawyer make an exception in the case of Sudipta Sen? Who was the solicitor? Why were conventions of the legal profession ignored in this `special` matter?
Q2. One Congress Minister`s lawyer-wife draws up an agreement to get `42 crore in capital for a former Congress Minister’s wife for a dubious business project. What was the lady lawyer’s interest in the venture? Why was she soliciting capital and investment from Sudipta Sen, almost in the manner of an investment banker?
Q3. The proposed business venture ‘a television channel’ and its promoter both belonged to the North-East. So many good, senior lawyers are available in New Delhi and Guwahati. Why did the promoter go to a lawyer in faraway Chennai to draft the agreement and act as consultant? Was there a hint of political coercion and protection money?
Q4. The lady lawyer, wife of a powerful Minister, allegedly charged `1 crore to draft an
agreement, while other lawyers could have done it for a much smaller sum. Why was she paid such a generous fee? What was the quid pro quo?
Q5. Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion. This rule applies for the Trinamool in Kolkata. “Does it apply for the Congress in New Delhi and Chennai,” asked TMC in a statement from Kolkata.
TMC pointed out that the Congress Minister AH Khan Chowdhury wrote to the Prime Minister last year in which he withdrew an earlier complaint that sought investigation into Saradha’s chit fund. Chowdhury wrote that when he had asked for an inquiry against Saradha in 2011, he was misinformed that Sen’s father was an infamous chit-fund owner who had duped thousands of people and committed suicide. The minister praised Saradha Realty for conducting “a prosperous and successful” business and said it had no links to a chit fund. Chowdhury on his part accused the TMC of “using the Congress to cover up their fault”.
The TMC, however, hit back saying the Congress must probe why its MP did a U-turn within six months. Demanding Chowdhury’s resignation, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said, “In September 2011, Chowdhury wrote a letter demanding strict action against Saradha group. Within six months, he does a U-turn and says the company be spared. The Congress has to give serious answers why its minister did this U-turn.”
Chowdhury defended himself saying: “In my previous note (a letter dated September 2011 in which he demands action against Saradha group) I had made some errors. It was a mistaken identity and I would be sued, so I had to change my opinion... I mistook Sudipta to be someone else... I met Sudipta only six months after my second letter,” he said.
In the 18-page letter to CBI, Sen alleged he was forced by Nalini to invest in a new television project in North-East worth Rs.42 crore. According to him, TV baroness Manoranjana Sinh, wife of former Congress Minister Matang Sinh took him to Nalini’s office in Chennai. When contacted, Nalini on Wednesday refused to speak to The Pioneer about her relationship with Sen.
The copy of the letter available with The Pioneer shows that Cabinet Minister’s wife was paid Rs 1 crore by Sen for preparing the agreement related to the takeover of a channel in North-East.
“Madam Chidambaram requested me to help her for setting up a channel in North-East in Guwahati and support her by extending Rs 42 crores to her company,” Sen writes adding Nalini herself prepared the agreement.
“Without assessing my financial strength she also pressurised me to support her with Rs 42 crores. So far I remember that I have already paid Rs 25 crore to Mrs Manoranjana Sinh in the name of the Company GNN India Pvt.Ltd,” said Sen.
Meanwhile BJP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said the role of a Tamil Nadu-based advocate, who is connected to Finance Minister, has come into focus and a proper probe must be held to reveal the level of her involvement in the scam.
The Congress defended Nalini Chidambaram on the ground that as a lawyer she had accepted the professional fee for advice/service rendered. Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said that lawyers are entitled to get their fees for advice rendered.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/stung-tmc-turns-tables-on-cong.html
DIDI’S SIN TAX
Rs 500cr plan to refund poor victims
OUR BUREAU
Calcutta, April 24: If those who commit the sin of smoking sin a bit more, it will pay for some of the alleged sins of Sudipta Sen.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today announced a Rs 500-crore relief fund for the worst-affected poor depositors of the Saradha Group, signalling a 10 per cent additional tax on tobacco products to raise the money and asking smokers to light up “a little more” to fill the mercy purse.
The announcement, considered a political water-cannon to douse public anger, stunned officials who are bracing for an administrative nightmare.
Some wondered how the government could refund the investors when Sebi, the capital markets watchdog, had asked Sen to pay back the money in three months. “Is it a bailout package for the poor or for Sen?” asked an incredulous official.
Mamata cited compassion for the downtrodden — a theme that was at play in Singur when plots could not be returned and after a hooch tragedy near Diamond Harbour. “Despite our acute financial constraints, we have decided to set up a relief fund of Rs 500 crore. This will be exclusively for those depositors who are really poor, downtrodden and those who are banking exclusively on the money they had deposited with the company,” she said.
It was not clear how Mamata arrived at the figure of Rs 500 crore as the extent of the defaults is not yet fully known. Sen has put his liability between Rs 300 and 400 crore, though others had spoken of Rs 1,200 crore.
“I seek apology from everyone for having to say that we have decided to increase 10 per cent tax on cigarettes and all kinds of tobacco products…. Despite this measure, Rs 500 crore cannot be arranged as the tax increase will give us only Rs 150 crore. We will arrange for the remaining sum somehow,” the chief minister said.
She added: “Apnara ei kodin ektu beshi korey khan, taholey taratari uthey ashbey (please smoke a little more these few days, then the amount can be raised quickly).”
Public health specialists were aghast. About 36 per cent of adults in Bengal consume some form of tobacco, in contrast to 35 per cent in India, and 14 per cent adults smoke in Bengal, against 9 per cent across India.
“A move to raise taxes on tobacco would be in favour of public health — as it’s intended to reduce consumption. But such a move should certainly not be accompanied by suggestions that people should use more tobacco,” said Monika Arora of Public Health Foundation of India, a research institution in New Delhi.
“If this was intended to be a serious message, it would tantamount to a violation of the 2003 law that prohibits any person from promoting tobacco for any purpose,” said Amit Yadav, a lawyer with Hriday, a Delhi-based NGO.
The chief minister cited the examples of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where taxes on tobacco products add up to around 50 per cent. She said that even after the hike, the tax would be only 40 per cent in Bengal.
Slapping a “sin tax” on addictive and harmful products is not unusual if the objective is to discourage their consumption and fund welfare projects. But few could recall an instance where the proceeds were used to repay deposits collected illegally amid allegations of links to those in power.
A comparison could be the $700-billion bailout the US government offered in 2008 to banks that triggered the crisis by reckless lending. But the default in Bengal does not have the global implications the US meltdown had — barring the political uncertainties confronting Trinamul.
“Why is the government shouldering the responsibility of Sen? Is the government trying to pay the price of the party’s proximity to the Saradha Group?” asked a city-based economist.
According to him, the chief minister should take measures to ferret out the money the group had collected.
Saradha Realty’s balance sheet for the year to March 2011 shows it had collected an advance of Rs 78 crore on account of bookings against property. Another unexplained advance of Rs 79 crore is shown. Saradha Tours and Travels, the other company raising deposits, shows Rs 17 crore under this head as on March 2012. Government officials felt the figures were too low, compared with the mobilisation drive.
According to the chief minister, the Justice Shyamal Sen commission will determine the beneficiaries of the relief fund.
A senior minister said he would not be surprised if people started queuing up outside BDO offices. “This may set a precedent as people will ask the government to return the money if other companies default,” he added.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130425/jsp/frontpage/story_16825376.jsp#.UXmUzqJTCvc
Enforcement Directorate steps into Saradha drama after Assam cops file case
New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Finance Ministry has registered a money laundering case to probe the allegations of financial irregularities by numerous depositors against the scam-hitSaradha group of Kolkata.
The ED has registered a regular case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at its Guwahati office after the Assam police registered a first information report (FIR) against the group following allegations by investors that they were duped of their hard earned money.
The group and its investments are already being probed by a host of agencies including the Securities & Exchange Board of India, the Income Tax department and investigation units under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
“The agency is looking for proceeds of crime and the illegal funds which could have been laundered by the agents and promoters. The probe will be in close coordination with other investigative agencies and police,” a source said.
The ED will also go through the FIRs registered by West Bengal police in this case.
The Saradha group has hit the headlines recently for allegedly defrauding thousands of depositors.
The ED, according to sources, will also go through the business and personal transactions of the Saradha group Chairman Sudipto Sen and his close associates and the business dealings of the groups' various investment schemes.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130425/jsp/frontpage/story_16827847.jsp#.UXmVZKJTCvc
Corporate Affairs Ministry to probe Saradha group
New Delhi, April 25 (PTI): The Corporate Affairs Ministry on Thursday decided to order a probe into the affairs of Saradha group companies, amid a growing controversy over alleged defrauding of investors by the Kolkata-based entity.
The decision followed a meeting held this morning by the Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot with senior ministry officials.
The meeting also deliberated on steps required to check suspected fraudulent activities of other chit fund companies, they said, while adding that a formal announcement of the probe would be made soon.
The alleged scam at Saradha group is said to have defrauded thousands of investors, including poor people, in West Bengal, while its chief Sudipta Sen has been brought to Calcutta after being arrested in Kashmir two days ago.
In the past, the ministry had received complaints of alleged ponzi schemes at 73 companies of about a dozen different groups operating in West Bengal.
These complaints, which include those against Saradha group entities, had been referred to agencies and departments concerned by the ministry.
The Securities & Exchange Board of India, the stock market regulator, is also probing the fund-raising activities of the Saradha group. Besides, the Income Tax department would also investigate investments and finances of Saradha group. It is already probing five other similar cases in West Bengal.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130425/jsp/frontpage/story_16825969.jsp