Guwahati: A CBI team will visit Assam on Tuesday to assess the extent of the chit fund scam in the state. The visit came in the wake of the state government’s decision last week to hand over some cases against chit fund companies, including the Saradha Group, to the probe agency. “I welcome CBI’s decision to send a team here. The response from CBI to our request was very prompt,” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here today.
He also said his government would soon form a Commission to monitor financial institutions to protect investors. Assam government will soon form a Commission to monitor financial institutions in the state to prevent any improprieties by chit funds, NBFCs and other such operators and for protection of investors, Gogoi said.
The Commission will consist of members from judiciary, banking and finance and it will work to ensure that episodes like that of the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam are not repeated in future. “We will form a Commission so that such events do not recur in future,” the CM said. Gogoi, however, did not elaborate on the structure and powers that the Commission will have or the time frame by which it is likely to be formed.
He said the state government wanted to hand over cases against 11 companies, including Saradha Group, to the CBI. On whether CBI will investigate the alleged links between Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen and Assam Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma and the nexus between police and chit fund operators in the state, Gogoi said, “CBI will decide whom to investigate. I cannot say anything. It is not for me to instruct the CBI.” He, however, admitted that the charges were “serious”.
“I am neither admitting or denying anything but the charges are serious,” Gogoi said. On Sarma inaugurating a biscuit factory of Saradha Group in Dhubri district in 2011, he said, “Normally the duty of every minister is to verify it (the company and its background). If that was not done then it is wrong.”
Sen, now under arrest, in a letter to the CBI had accused Sarma of “cheating” him. The businessman had claimed he had been defrauded of a huge amount by the state minister. Gogoi said the state government had ordered a CID enquiry into operations of chit funds in Assam two years back. “I must admit that we never imagined that frauds are taking place in such a huge proportion,” Gogoi said. (PTI)