Saradha scanner on ex-RBI official

OUR BUREAU

Sudipta Sen Calcutta, May 10: Investigators probing the Saradha default have questioned a former Reserve Bank of India official who was once responsible for overseeing the functioning of non-banking financial companies across Bengal. The former assistant manager of the regulatory body, whose identity police refused to divulge, was interrogated for over an hour yesterday to ascertain the extent of his alleged association with the Saradha Group, which gathered money under the collective investment scheme (CIS). This is the first time since the Saradha default broke that investigators interrogated someone linked to regulatory authorities. The former RBI official was summoned after Saradha boss Sudipta Sen dropped his name during interrogation. "There are certain norms in place for companies launching the CIS to collect money from investors. The Saradha Group evidently did not follow the norms and went about its business," said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar police commissionerate. "The interrogation of the ex-RBI employee, who retired in December 2011, was one of the steps to find out if Sudipta Sen took any help from regulators to conduct his business. Sen has said that he paid money to this man," the officer added. According to the police, Sen had told them that he met the RBI official through a power broker in 2011 when Sen's group was spreading its business across the state and beyond. The official's interrogation is significant as the investigators have presented a list of 10 persons who were allegedly on Sen's payroll without being employees of Saradha. Of them, a former Hidco official, Anjan Bhattacharya, has already made a confessional statement before the magistrate. "The list includes former central and state government officials, businessmen and officials of clubs. We have learnt that some of these people used to help Sen in contacting key officials in different sectors through a few hand-picked middlemen," said an officer probing the default. "Sen had reached the RBI official through one such broker." In the course of the investigation into the default, the police have also stumbled upon a 100-bigha property in Shimla that Sen had purchased in 2011 for over Rs 20 crore. "Sen did not mention the property in north India during interrogation. It was one of the employees who tipped us. It shows that Sen is still trying his best to hide his properties from us," said an officer. He added: "Sen was keen to acquire land. In a few places, he would hire pay-loaders to give an impression of an upcoming project. That would be to hoodwink depositors." In a two-and-a-half-page statement, executive director of the group, Debjani Mukherjee, has claimed that she is innocent and had protested the way Sen was carrying out his businesses. The statement, signed by Mukherjee and circulated by her lawyer, stated that she could "not leave the captain (Sen) of a drowning ship (the Saradha Group)". "It is too early to comment on whether the statement will have any legal sanctity…. But it is clear that she is trying her best to distance herself from Sen," said a police officer. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130511/jsp/bengal/story_16885299.jsp