Saradha scam: CBI raids property of Sudipta Sen, others

A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday carried out raids at 10-12 offices of the Saradha Group, the company at the centre of a multi-crore chitfund scam investigation.

Two houses owned by company chairman Sudipta Sen and Saradha's headquarters at Salt Lake, Kolkata, were among the properties searched by the CBI, sources said. Fifty officers of the investigative agency conducted the raids in three groups.

The CBI operation was, however, delayed as the officers were not given the keys to Sen's house at HA-115. The team waited at least five hours before they finally forced their way into the property.

The team conducting the raid at Saradha's Midland Park office met a similar hurdle.

The CBI also raided the houses of expelled journalist-turned-Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh and Saradha official Debjani Mukherjee, both of whom are currently behind bars along with Sen for conning lakhs of people out of crores of rupees.

Sources said Thursday's operation helped the CBI get its hands on some "important documents". Besides this, the officials collected details of Debjani's bank account to peruse through her transactions, the sources added.

The CBI also conducted raids in Orissa against two companies, Nabadiganta Capital Service Limited and Rose Valley Group of Companies, accused of running chitfund scams. The houses of three politicians, including BJD MP Rama Chandra Hansda, were among about a dozen locations where the agency conducted search operations.