Chit fund case: ED attaches assets worth Rs 5 Crore of West Bengal-based journalist

New Delhi, March 31

Assets worth Rs 5 crore of a senior West Bengal-based journalist, Suman Chattopadhyay, and his family members have been attached under the anti-money laundering law in connection with an alleged chit fund scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday.

The federal probe agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attaching bank accounts and duplex flats situated in and around Kolkata.

The action pertains to the ED probe into the transactions of the ICore group of companies. The agency had filed a money-laundering case, taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the group and others.

“ICore group companies ran a chit fund scam and the group illegally raised a huge amount of money from lakhs of gullible investors by promising unrealistic returns,” the agency alleged in a statement.

Chattopadhyay, it said, “personally and through his company Disha Productions and Media Private Limited, has received proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 9.83 crore from the ICore group in the guise of business investment in the company”.

Apart from the ICore group, Chattopadhyay also received funds from other chit fund companies such as Saradha Group through the same modus operandi and had come under the ED scanner previously in the Saradha group case, the agency said.

Chattopadhyay, then the editor of a leading Bengali daily, was arrested by the CBI in 2018 in the same case.

The ED attached assets worth Rs 300 crore of the company, its promoters, directors and others in September last year.