TMC leader Pranab Chatterjee, accused of chit fund scam worth Rs.3.74 crore arrested by CBI

The TMC leader was held for allegedly siphoning off money from a trust running the scheme

December 11, 2021

CBI arrests TMC leader Pranab Chatterjee in chit fund fraud case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Burdwan Municipality President Pranab Chatterjee in West Bengal for allegedly misappropriating Rs.3.74 crore from a trust running a chit fund scheme.

Chatterjee was arrested on Friday and was produced before the competent court in Asansol which sent him to two days CBI custody.

The case pertains to ponzi schemes that were reported from West Bengal and Odisha.

Officials were probing the chit fund case for three years allegedly run by the Sunmarg Welfare Organisation. The CBI found that Chatterjee was closely associated with the trust and the trustees.

The CBI said that the accused allegedly allured the public at large to invest in some scheme with a promise of a high rate of returns at maturity, without the requisite permission from the regulatory authorities.

The CBI, in its FIR, said, “It is also alleged that a large number of investors have invested their hard-earned money in the trust,” the spokesperson said. It was also alleged that the trustee cheated the investors, misappropriated their hard-earned money, closed the branches, and fled.”

Chatterjee allegedly misappropriated over Rs.3 crore from the trust for personal use.

On Friday, searches were conducted by the CBI at the premises of the accused, which led to the recovery of several incriminating materials.

The CBI took over the investigation of chit-fund fraud cases in West Bengal and Odisha on 9 May 2014 on the directions of the Supreme Court.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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