Assets of P Chidambaram's wife Nalini attached in chit fund scandal

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 3

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it had issued orders to attach assets worth more than Rs 6 crore of alleged Saradha chit fund scam beneficiaries, including former Union Finance and Home Minister P Chidambaram’s wife Nalini Chidambaram, under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA).

Saradha scam

The “beneficiaries” whose assets have been attached include Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union minister P Chidambaram, ex-CPM MLA Debendranath Biswas and a firm owned by former Assam minister (late) Anjan Dutta.

Rs 600 cr assets attached in Rs 2,459 cr scam

The Saradha Group mobilised about Rs 2,459 crore in Bengal, Assam and Odisha till 2013. Nearly Rs 1,983 crore remains unpaid to depositors. Assets worth about Rs 600 crore have so far been attached.

In a statement, the ED said the “beneficiaries” also included former IPS officer and CPM former MLA Debendranath Biswas; East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar and Anubhuti Printers and Publications, a company owned by former Assam minister (late) Anjan Dutta.

The attachment order has been issued for seizing movable assets worth Rs 3.30 crore and immovable properties worth Rs 3 crore, the ED said, adding that these properties were owned by the Saradha Group and other people who were “beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime”. The ED case pertains to an alleged chit fund scam perpetrated by the Saradha Group in West Bengal, Assam and Odisha till 2013.

“The quantum of total money mobilised by this group company is about Rs 2,459 crore, of which nearly Rs 1,983 crore remains unpaid to the depositors till date excluding the interest amount,” the ED statement read. Assets worth about Rs 600 crore have been attached by the ED in this case till now.

Nalini Chidambaram's role in the case was allegedly linked to the payment of a legal fee of Rs 1.26 crore by the Saradha Group for her appearances in court and the Company Law Board over a television channel purchase deal, the ED had said earlier.

Dutta was considered a close confidante of late Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and he was a minister in his Cabinet, handling several departments, including transport. He was appointed Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president in December 2014 and he held the post till his death in 2016.

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