The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the Saradha chit fund scam involving over Rs. 10,000 crore.
A Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and C. Nagappan passed the order on a batch of petitions seeking CBI probe. “We are in this case dealing with a major financial scam nicknamed ‘Chit Fund Scam’ affecting lakhs of depositors across several States,” the Bench said.
Justice Thakur said West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Odisha were involved in the collection of nearly Rs. 10,000 crore from the public, especially the weaker sections, which had “fallen prey to the temptations of handsome returns promised by the companies involved in the scam.”
The Bench said investigations had “revealed involvement of several political and influential personalities” in the scam. It could have “international money laundering dimensions.”
