File Photo: Saradha Group of Companies
The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI has given a deadline of July 31 to the police of West Bengal and Odisha to submit all the documents related to the Saradha chit fund scam in which a Trinamool Congress member of parliament is also an accused.
The sources said not all the documents related to the scam have yet been handed over to the agency which is impeding the probe in the scam in which crores of rupees collected from people across the state in the name of chit funds were allegedly swindled by companies including the Saradha.
The agency will take a stern view in case all the documents related to the scam are not handed over to the CBI by July 31, highly placed sources said.
The sources said the police of both the states have assured the agency that all the records will be submitted to it.
They said in case documents are not submitted to the agency, it may start action against the erring police officials suspected to be withholding the records.
The CBI sources said that despite repeated requests they have not received complete set of documents from the West Bengal Police related to the scam, raising fears that some of these documents might have been destroyed.
They said in case it is established that crucial documents related to the scam were destroyed by the officials intentionally, the agency might proceed against them for the destruction of evidence.
The sources said the CBI understands that a vast number of cases were registered by the West Bengal police while probing the scam in which thousands of people's money was allegedly siphoned off by masterminds of the chit fund schemes and collecting all the documents will be difficult.
The CBI, on the directions of the Supreme Court, recently began its probe in the scam in which it has registered three cases in West Bengal and over 42 cases in Odisha. Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh and Saradha chief Sudipto Sen are main suspects in the case who are named in FIR.