More hurdles for Saradha property auction KOLKATA: Justice Shyamal Sen Commission cant auction the ill-gotten properties of Saradha even if CEO Sudipta Sen gives a permission in writing to the commission to repay the hard-earned money of depositors. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) argues that it is not within the rights of the commission to sell properties when the Supreme Court is monitoring the probe. Another practical point is that many of the identified properties are not registered in Sudipta Sens name or in the name of the Saradha board of directors. ED special director Yogesh Gupta told this to Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen in a meeting on Monday that lasted for over an hour. Gupta, however, gave some relaxations over the auctioning of the 44 Saradha cars but with sanction from the high court. The reason is that the value of the cars may depreciate to an abnormal low if the auction is held after the inquiry is over. The auction ban has cast a shadow on the Saradha-owned television channels — Tara Newz, Tara Muzic and Channel 10 — that will find it hard to get new takers. The situation is similar with the Lincoln School near Siliguri that belonged to the Group. A committee led by the Darjeeling district magistrate is running the school at the moment. The ED special director didnt buy the plea of Justice Sen and his commission members, Amlan Basu and Joseph Chatterjee, that auctioning of Saradha properties would only benefit the Saradha victims. Instead, the ED wanted to attach all the properties for the sake of the probe. ED officials believe that the properties will give a clue on how all these were acquired and also unfold criminal activities, if any, involved in the acquisition. The ED has attached Saradha properties worth at least Rs 35.4 crore in West Bengal and Odisha, frustrating Justice Sen Commissions efforts to dispose some of these to compensate more than 1.8 million duped investors. The ED feels the commissions power to seize and dispose Saradha assets is contrary to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Prior to this, the commission prepared a list of seized Saradha properties from the SIT, which includes 208 plots, 64 cars and around Rs 37 crore in cash. For the purpose of auctioning, the commission entrusted MSTC, a central agency, with the job to evaluate all properties. The attached assets included buildings, bank accounts and plots held in the name of Saradha Group and its directors. Since many of the properties are not registered in the name of Saradha, its not easy to attach these, said an ED official. The Justice Shyamal Sen Commission, on the other hand, shied away from sharing data on the 18.5 lakh Saradha depositors with the ED officials. Commission members, instead, said that the data entry is not yet complete. When the Shyamal Sen Commission was formed on April 24, 2013, it was asked to quantify the estimated amount of money involved in these alleged transactions; to assess the assets and liabilities of the said group of companies and such other group of companies involved in similar activities; to recommend the means of providing the persons who have allegedly lost their savings with compensation derived from the assets of the said group of companies. TNN
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:04:50 +0000
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