A court at Bidhanangar on the city’s north-eastern fringes rejected the bail petition of Sudipta Sen, chairman and managing director of the scam-tainted Saradha Group, and one of his close associates and remanded the duo in judicial custody.
The Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate A.H.M. Rahman remanded Mr. Sen and Arvind Chauhan till May 31 in connection with an FIR lodged by an investor accusing them of cheating and other offences.
Five more cases were registered against Mr. Sen during the day, even as he expressed happiness with the ongoing probe.
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When he was being whisked away by a police officer, journalists asked him whether he was happy with the ongoing investigations. Mr. Sen said: “Yes, I am happy, happy.”
Earlier this week, the prime accused in the multicrore swindle case, had filed an affidavit before the Calcutta High Court stating a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation was not required.
Of the five new cases against him, two pertain to alleged non-payment of salaries to employees of the media arm of the group and another relates to a case filed by an investor. The two remaining cases involved non-payment of a returnable deposit and non-payment of dues to the owner of a security agency.
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During the court proceedings, defence counsel pleaded for bail for the accused, arguing that the cases of cheating against them did not stand. They said the police had already completed interrogation, and there was no need to keep the accused in jail.
Though the public prosecutor did not seek further police custody in any of the cases, he opposed bail, saying the matter was sensitive and the duo could flee or tamper with evidence.
Another senior official of the company, Debjani Mukherjee, was not produced before the court as she was admitted to a local hospital earlier in the day.
Mr. Sen, along with Mr. Chauhan and Ms Mukherjee, was arrested from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir on April 23, days after the collapse of illegal collective investment schemes run by the Saradha Group, hurting lakhs of investors and agents.