KOLKATA: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested two directors of Prayag Group, the company headquartered in West Bengal and operating from neighbouring states, in connection with the multi-crore chit fund case.
The arrested were identified as Basudeb Bagchi and Abhik Bagchi.
The chit-fund entity had been under the scanner of both the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for quite some time for their involvement in a number of illegal activities.
Sources said that the arrests were made after marathon raids and search operations at different locations in Kolkata linked to the entity including the twin residences of the two arrested directors.
There are various charges against this entity, which include money collection under various multi-level marketing schemes alluring them of hefty returns, parking the same amount outside through the hawala route, duping the investors by not paying them the assured returns after a point of time and money laundering.
This is not the first time that these two directors have been arrested in this ponzi connection. Both were arrested for the first time by the CBI officials in a case registered against them in neighbouring Odisha.
The chit fund was then accused of illegally accumulating public deposits under the garb of multi-level marketing companies from West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura and Assam.
As per the estimates of the central agency officials, Prayag Group accumulated deposits to the tune of little less than Rs 2, 000 crore under various schemes released by them in the market.
Both the arrested directors were known to be extremely close to the former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in judicial custody in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.
West Bengal has had a long history of chit funds cases since 1980 when the Sanchaita Ponzi scam surfaced.
After a lull, several chit-fund scams surfaced in 2012, mainly Saradha and Rose Valley.