Kolkata: The CPI(M) on Friday shrugged off responsibility for the mushrooming of chitfund companies and ponzi schemes like those of Saradha Group during its tenure, saying it had written to the SEBI in this regard while renewing its demand for a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into it.
"The problem was Saradha and other such companies were offering schemes like land or else on completion of investment term which was generally five years and were to mature in 2012 at the earliest," senior CPI(M) leader and former state finance minister Asim Dasgupta said at a press conference.
"Sensing something amiss, we had written to the SEBI in 2010 seeking action against these companies," he said.
"In 2013, SEBI asked Saradha and other companies to stop operations," he said adding that "the regulatory body had in its order acknowledged that we had written to it."
He claimed that 22 lakh people had been affected by the Saradha scam, saying "this is the largest scam since Independence."
Dasgupta said that the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal should not have made budgetary allocation to create a fund for repaying the investors.
"It should have been done through seizure and sale of property of the fraudsters by taking the High Court's permission," he said.
"That is why we are demanding a CBI probe under the supervision of the Supreme Court into the Saradha scam in order to track and locate these properties," the former finance minister said.
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