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Money-or-poison plea to Mamata ‘Tense’ agent taken ill in SiliguriT

Money-or-poison plea to Mamata ‘Tense’ agent taken ill in SiliguriT

A demonstration by the agents and depositors of the Saradha Group in front of Gautam Deb’s 
office on Hill Cart Road in Siliguri on Monday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo
TT, April 22: An agent of the Saradha Group fell ill in Siliguri today after a three-hour demonstration while investors hit the streets with placards asking the chief minister to give them back their money or provide them with poison.
Dinabandhu Pal, who had collected Rs 16 lakh for the Saradha Group, was admitted to Siliguri subdivisional hospital after he complained of palpitation in front of Siliguri police station. His wife Ruma said Pal had been tense for the past few days. “We too had invested Rs 2 lakh, which we had kept for our daughter’s wedding. Besides, he had collected Rs 16 lakh. Now what will happen? The investors want their money back. He had been so tense,” said Ruma. Doctors said Pal’s condition was stable.
Around 11am the demonstrators assembled in front of Vivekananda Bhawan, which houses the office of north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb. Around 500 people shouted slogans, demanding “money or poison”.
Didi (referring to chief minister Mamata Banerjee) amader taka ferot din ba bish din(Didi, either return us our money or give us poison),” read the placards held by the demonstrators who also submitted a memorandum addressed to Deb, asking for government intervention to get their money back. The agitators blocked Hill Cart Road for 15 minutes each in two phases before ending their protest in front of Siliguri police station with a demonstration.
At shopping complex Shanti Square, where the north Bengal headquarters of the Saradha Group is located, two shops complained that they were running losses because of sharing the same premises with the company. On the advice of the local administration, they remained shut for the third day today.
The three-storied building houses a garment store and a shop selling sanitary ware on the ground and first floors. The Saradha Group had taken on rent the second and third floor of the building owned by Suresh Garg.
Garg, also the owner of Garg Enterprises — the sanitary ware and tiles shop — said he had suffered losses around Rs 7-8 lakh in the past three days. He added that Saradha Group had defaulted on rent Rs 20 lakh for the past four months. The manager of the garment shop said the establishment had lost around Rs 1.5 lakh in the past three days.
Agents of other micro finance companies said they were at a loss to make their investors see logic. “We have no financial stringency and the business is steady. But if all investors want money at one go, it is impossible for us to give it. People have stopped paying money since last week but they are demanding whatever they have invested several months ahead of the maturity report,” an agent of a north Bengal-based company said.
Some of these companies were targeted across the state as investors trooped into their offices in hordes, asking for their money back.
East Midnapore: Nearly 200 people who claimed to be depositors of Rose Valley attacked its office in Tamluk town this afternoon. The mob ransacked the reception area. A group entered manager Golok Bera’s chamber and ransacked it too.
Another mob of about 400 people attacked the office of Alchemist Ltd, also in Tamluk. At Durgachak, nearly 100 people ransacked the office of Burdwan Sunnmarg.
Burdwan: Several residents who had deposited money with Rose Valley demonstrated outside the company’s regional office in Raniganj, demanding their money back. In Burdwan town, the police interrogated two Saradha agents who were arrested yesterday. Another agent Sourav Banerjee was arrested today.
Hooghly: Nearly 150 workers of Global Automobile, the motorcycle manufacturing unit of the Saradha Group, demonstrated in front of the factory in Polba to protest against non-payment of salary for three months.
Global Automobiles was a joint venture of Xenitis with a Chinese company and was inaugurated by then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2007. It was purchased by the Saradha Group in 2010. The officer in charge of Polba police station, Atish Das, said: “Representatives of seven banks from whom the company had borrowed money, had come to the factory.”
Nadia: In Ranaghat, nearly 300 Saradha agents took out a procession demanding refund of deposited money. They also demanded a probe into transport minister Madan Mitra’s involvement in the dealings of the Saradha Group.

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