Agents flee, state depositors in lurch

PINAKI MAJUMDAR & AMIT GUPTA

The Saradha Group office at Rajmahal in Sahebganj district. File picture Jamshedpur/Ranchi, April 24: Saradha Group of Bengal, at the centre of a deposit default scandal rocking the neighbouring state, had spread its network across Jharkhand, but most prominently in Santhal Pargana and East Singhbhum. According to sources, the group has over 500 investors and around 200 agents in the Ghatshila and Baharagora region of East Singhbhum bordering Bengal. Total investments made in the company from the region would be around Rs 1 crore. While most of the out- of -work agents were absconding, the group's local office at a house at Nawabkothi in Ghatshila has been shut. "I had deposited Rs 1 lakh which I had got as retirement benefits," said A.K. Chowdhary. "The company had promised to double the money in four-and-half years," said the former Hindustan Copper Limited employee who stays at Galudih near Ghatshila. Chowdhary has lost hope of recovering his investment as his agent, Tinku Chakraborty, was absconding. "He was the chief agent who used to run the Saradha Group office. When I went to the office on Monday, I found the door locked," he said. Md. Aslam Khan, a small-time trader of Baharagora, invested Rs 8,000 with the group. "For the last eight months, I have been depositing Rs 1,000 with an agent who used to give me a receipt. The agent promised that on the 24th month I would get back the amount with a high rate of interest," he said, but added he was now sure he had lost all his money for good. The group also had a large number of investors in several rural and semi-urban areas of Sahebganj, Koderma, Dumka. The Sahebganj office was sealed by district officials on February 13 after the collapse of the company in Bengal. On February 4, Pakur deputy commissioner Sunil Kumar Singh had ordered a crackdown on as many as 18 non-banking finance companies in Deoghar and Pakur after one rogue firm disappeared with investors' wealth amounting to crores. Singh said he did not remember the names of the companies, but local sources claimed a Saradha Group office was among those sealed. National Investors Forum, a national organisation dedicated to safeguarding the interests of small investors has appealed to Saradha Group investors to get in touch with them to help plan their next course of action. "We are ready to initiate whatever legal measures are required on behalf of the Saradha Group investors. That's why we need the investors to come forward," said Sudip Mukherjee, the forum's general secretary. He said several chit funds had been flourishing in the state for the last couple of years. But not many of them could make inroads into Jamshedpur proper because of its past experience with a Chandigarh-based firm that duped over 33,000 investors of the city of around Rs 100 crore in 2000. As many as 85,000 people from Jharkhand ended up losing around Rs 225 crore due to the activities of Golden Forest Private Limited in 2007. Investors have moved court to get back their money. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130425/jsp/frontpage/story_16824591.jsp#.UXk6t6KBlA0