Sharada Mess

Quick-Rich Dreams Lie Crushed Farmers Who Barely Made Ends Meet Got Rich Overnight But Now Its A Nightmare Ahead
Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay TNN

Dakshin Barasat (South 24-Parganas ): Every other house in this part of Bengal has a rags-to -riches-to-rags story. Saradha Group showed them a dream that was unbelievable when it lasted. But then reality struck a hard, bitter blow. Sixty-year-old Dulal Chandra Gharami walked back home tense on Monday afternoon. He was summoned to the Trinamool Congress office at Beliadanga, where he was asked to cough up protection money. For last four days, Gharami, a devout Vaishnavite, is being hounded by depositors. His liability stands at Rs 2 crore. He has somehow kept the depositors appeased. But it is hard to keep the parties at bay. Till a few weeks ago, Gharami was an inspiration or envy to Beliadanga residents. He made a whopping Rs 1.8 lakh a month. Beliadanga, a sleepy mofussil, had never seen such magical transformation until the chit funds came along. Sixty per cent residents here are still dependent on agriculture,10% are in trade and 30% in services. Thanks to diminishing returns from the agriculture, almost every farmer turned a depositor, if not an agent. So did the traders, including small vendors. Even tea-sellers queued up with daily deposits of Rs 10.Associating with Saradha meant pursuing a dream at Beliadanga. With the dream getting busted, the collective liability of Beliadanga stands at no less than Rs 10 crore. The inflation in deposit has hit residents harder than they ever thought. And Beliadanga is only a microcosm of Dakshin Barasat. There is hardly any home at Dakshin Barasat with its population of 40,000 people, that has not invested in Saradha Realty. This area alone has 2,579 Saradha Realty agents. It is the biggest unit under the Baruipur regional office, where Saradhas chit-fund journey began in 2008.Even Saradha owner Sudipta Sen was aware of its when the cheques bounced, he made it a point to come to Dakshin Barasat to pacify the frayed nerves of the agents on February 3. Saradha brought sudden prosperity to many residents of this part-rural-part-urban pocket. Tapas Haldar, who was a roadside mechanic, made barely Rs 3,000 a month. He couldnt believe it when he started making Rs 50,000 a month as a Saradha agent. He bought a motorcycle that he had only dreamt of earlier. Bharat Adhikary stopped going to his grocery shop as Saradha gave him room to think big. But we never realized that our dreams would come crashing down so fast. We cannot go back home for fear of being lynched, said Mahadev Mondal, who became a chit-fund agent before his BSc results came out. He did not think of any other vocation as people around him seemed to be getting richer just by depositing money with Saradha. The CMDs (Sudipta Sens ) hobnobbing with ministers and MPs only reassured the depositors as well as agents. There was no dearth of funds. On December 31,we got a deposit of Rs 1.8 crore at the Dakshin Barasat branch in a single day. We spent the whole night just arranging the cash and counting them. The Baruipur area office handled nearly Rs 6 crore that day, said Uttam Pyne, whose liability stands at Rs 25 lakh. The entire Dakshin Barasat today looks like it was hit by a cyclone. Every home has a bankrupt depositor or a fugitive agent. People who were friends have turned enemies. Happy households have become miserable. Students have stopped going to school. Traders have lost interest in opening shutters, said Biswarup Mukherjee, an interior designer. There is a sense of treachery that has replaced the warmth of a neighbourhood, he said. I am

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neither an agent, nor a depositor. But my friends are. Suddenly everything has become vicious, Mukherjee sighed. The lure of big returns was so overpowering that Monidip Chatterjee, an agent, parked his entire home loan amount with Saradha. Now he just stares at the TV screen blankly. He has stopped talking or eating. Monidip was expecting the chief minister to spring some hope for them. But there was nothing in the CMs speech on Monday. Monidip looked crushed, silently. Kalam Sardar, Sahabudin Sardar and Sabana Biwi scream on the streets to get their lifes savings back.They know its useless. We do not want to listen to any other excuse. When they (agents) took money from us they promised us the moon. Now they are showing us the hell when we want our money back, said Renubala Sardar, a vegetable vendor from Saligaria, who has lost Rs 23,000. We put our faith in Saradha only because of the government. Sudipta Sen kept telling us that he has solid backing of the government. When we visited the Salt Lake headquarters, we used to see doors with nameplates bearing the names of ministers, said Gharami. Now all is lost.

(Clockwise from left) Saradha agents have taken refuge at a hideout in Beliadanga in Dakshin Barasat;investors in front of a notice pasted outside the office by Saradha marketing members;DSO supporters block Kulpi Road in front of the closed Baruipur Saradha office

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We put our faith in Saradha because of the govt.Sudipta Sen kept telling us that he has solid backing of the govt Dulal Gharami | SARADHA AGENT

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Last paisa lost, still hoping against hope

Subhro Maitra TNN

Sahapur: Are you from the company or are you an agent This team of reporter and photographer was greeted with looks of suspicion on entering this village, about 5km from Malda proper. We had told some residents that we wanted to talk about the Saradha fiasco. Revelation of our identity had an unexpected effect: they immediately clammed up. No, I did not make any deposit. I have nothing to say, became a familiar refrain. It was like running into a brick wall. We had information that thousands of residents of Sahapur, Raipur and some other villages around the banks of the Mahananda had invested their savings in Saradha and other similar firms. Most of these offices have closed down. So, why was no one willing to talk, especially those who stood to lose even their last paisa After about half an hour, the ice was finally broken by Uttam, the owner of a small paan shop. You see, these people still hope to get back their money. They fear that talking to the media would spoil all chances of getting back anything, he said. With little scope of agriculture and no industry around, youths found the opportunity of

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investing in these get rich-quick schemes too good to resist. For Urmila Mandal of Raipur, it was a dream to arrange a good match for her daughter and give her a good wedding that led her to invest Rs 60,000.Working in a small eatery as the cooks helper, she did all she could to supplement the income of her husband, a rickshaw puller. For the family of four, Saradha was the promised pot of gold. They promised to return Rs 1.25 lakh in three years. The term would have matured in another two months, Urmila said between sobs. Her daughters wedding stands cancelled. Ramprasad Karmakar (60),a vegetable vendor in Sahapur, has fallen ill since the managing director of the company he had invested Rs 12,000 in shut the office and fled. He was promised a return of Rs 25,000 in May. The fate of the agents is no better. It was only after repeated attempts that Tarun Das (25) came out of the house. He was visibly shattered, hardly being able to speak. His family members said that he had raised around Rs 8 lakh from depositors in the last three years. Depositors have come knocking and some have even threatened to harm him and his family. His septuagenarian father, Bhupal Das, said: My son had not got his salary for the last month but he invested more in the company himself. Mother Renuka Das said: Will they beat my son Tell me, what is his fault Tarun stares at an uncertain future. His only option, perhaps, is to migrate to another state to work as a daily-wager.

Vegetable vendor Ramprasad Karmakar and his wife and (right) agent Tarun Das

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AGENTS GHERAO DM Another Saradha agent attempts suicide
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tamluk/Jhargram: An agent of the Saradha Group attempted suicide at Benamuri in Contai while about 100-odd agents gheraoed the Jhargram home of state minister Sukumar Hansda on Tuesday. Another 50-60 agents demonstrated in front of the East Midnapore district magistrates office at Tamluk and later blocked the Haldia-Mecheda road. Agent Dipu Das,28,was found lying senseless beside the Digha-Tamluk railway line with a half-empty bottle containing poison beside him. He was admitted to Contai hospital. Dipu has been an agent of the Saradha Group for the last three years. Son of a van rickshaw puller, Dipu had himself invested what he had earned as an agent in the Saradha Group. After the group closed down, locals who had invested with the Saradha Group through him started thronging his house, demanding he return their money. Two days ago, he fled home and went into hiding to avoid the investors. Dipus uncle Ajit Das said his nephew was scared ever since investors pressured him for their money. Agents of the Saradha Group who gheraoed the ministers house had tried to lodge a complaint with Jhargram police station two days ago. But cops did not accept the complaint. They then decided to submit a deputation to Hansda and gherao his house as he was a minister from the district. The minister was not at home and his security guards locked the gate. Hansda later said: This entire matter is being looked into by Mamatadi and there is nothing I can do about it.
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Shady firms boosted Bengal growth for 10 yrs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: The shady money laundering companies (they are not chit funds) may have duped over a million investors, but they have contributed to the economy of rural Bengal for over a decade. Some economists feel that the high growth of gross state domestic product (GSDP) in our state could be a derivative of this mushrooming shady money laundering companies. Even by conservative estimates of the ministry of corporate affairs, these companies have mobilized over Rs 17,000 crore till date since 2003.This is almost double the money spent on development projects by the state government in the 2012-13 fiscal. Most of this deposit was mobilized from rural and semi-urban Bengal involving a few lakh agents. These agents mobilized money in lieu of good commission (in some cases 15-20 % of the deposit),which in turn was spent on consumer goods like two-wheelers, mobile phones, food items and electronics or went into lifestyle spending like at shopping malls. The GSDP of Bengal grew by 6.8% in the second quarter of the last fiscal compared to 5.3% nationally, while in the second quarter it was 8.08% compared to 5.5% nationally. This was despite a sluggish growth in manufacturing. The consumption spending from the huge money circulated through these shady companies has a huge multiplier effect. According to the Keynesian multiplier, for Rs 17,000 crore spent on development expenditure, the multiplier effect could have been Rs 68,000 crore, which is 30% of the total debt burden of Bengal, explained an economist. Dipankar Dasgupta, noted economist and former head of Indian Statistical Institute, also feels that these shady companies might have contributed to the high GSDP growth of the state. If all these companies are eliminated at one go, there will be a major impact on the rural

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economy. Ajitava Roychowdhury, economist and professor at Jadavpur University, also admitted that the agents of these companies have fuelled consumption in rural Bengal. These companies have been growing in rural Bengal for over a decade because there arent too many opportunities of employment and savings in those areas. If you shut them down without giving any other alternative, the impact will be huge, he added. IIM professor and economist Anup Sinha felt the government should not look into short-term impact. If you clip black money, even that will have an immediate negative impact on a lot of things like, say, real estate. But you have to think long-term, he added.

Saradha investors take out a protest rally in Siliguri on Monday

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Receptionist who became Saradha director in 3 years

Saibal Sen TNN

Kolkata: The woman known as Sudipta Sens shadow in the Saradha Group was at her appointed place during arrest too right by the boss. The story of 27-year-old Debjani Mukherjee, who joined as a receptionist and became the executive director of the groups flagship company within three years, can dwarf any tale of corporate rise .Nothing moved without the permission of madam as she was known in the companys Sector V headquarters, and nothing escaped her eye. Such was her influence that she shared Sens office chambers as the groups de facto number two and signed all cheques valued at over Rs 20 lakh as well as appointment letters. She was Sens eyes and ears, the lady who the chairman seemed to trust even more than his family. Her brisk climb up the corporate ladder started after she was moved to the Midland Park HQ, nine months after she joined Saradha Tours & Travels office at 64,Shakespeare Sarani as a receptionist and telephone operator. In 2011,she became the director of Saradha Realty. Soon, she was also given charge of the banking and HR verticals. What led to her meteoric rise Debjani is the daughter of Timir Baran Mukherjee, a close family friend of Sen. It is believed Mukherjee helped Sen go from estate manager to the owner of the sprawling Saradha Gardens off Joka in the mid-2000 s. Mukherjees close proximity to local CPM leaders also helped Sen.

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Left, TMC govts to blame for ignoring fraud warnings

Ajanta Chakraborty TNN

Kolkata: A simple notification to strengthen the hands of the state police would have gone a long way in nailing fraudulent companies like Saradha. Apex regulator RBI had been repeatedly asking successive governments (led by the Left Front and, later, the Trinamool government) to issue one, but in vain. Even during the last meeting of the state-level coordination committee, representatives from RBI and Sebi reminded state officials to issue the notification according to provisions of the RBI Act,1934.This way, in the absence of any state legislation, the administrative machinery could have clamped down on scamsters and saved scores of investors. Bengal has been under special consideration of the central agencies since it accounts for 50% of the entire nonbanking finance companies in India. But the responsibility of the central agencies ended with issuing licences to NBFCs and broad monitoring of companies within and outside the ambit. The very existence of this coordination committee belies chief minister Mamata Banerjees claim that the state didnt have any way of nailing down financial frauds because it was controlled and monitored by central agencies like RBI, Sebi and the ministry of corporate affairs. The committee meets in Kolkata at least twice a year. The state chief secretary, home secretary and the director general of police are supposed to attend these meetings, but they never have done so till date, said sources.

WARNINGS IGNORED Since Mamata Banerjee came to power in May 2011,there have been several warnings on chit funds mushrooming across Bengal Aug 22,2011: Left delegation led by leader of oppn Surjya Kanta Mishra meets PM, urges him to look into proliferation of chit funds in Bengal Dec 6,2012:

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RBI governor D Subbarao warns states on chit funds. Responsibility of checking and prosecuting them is with the state govts, RBI doesnt regulate chit-fund firms, he says Mar 26,2013: Sebi boss U K Sinha concerned over growth of chit funds in the country, especially Bengal. Urges states to plug loopholes in regulations RICE cancels TV channel takeover Efforts to rope in new buyers for Saradha Groups media and infotainment channels hit a wall on Monday with the RICE Group shelving its acquisition of Channel 10 due to financial irregularities in Saradha.

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