CMO officers ‘running’ chit fund for years

Sulagna Sengupta : Kolkata, Sat May 04 2013: FOR the last eight years, a group of government staff at Writers' Buildings have been operating chit fund business right under the nose of Chief Minister's Office. Trinamul Employees' Federation Welfare Co-operative Fund was formed in 2001 by a group of government staff. They allegedly started collecting money from employees by offering them an annual interest of 12 per cent. Last month, the co-operative was renamed as Federation of Secretariat Employees — an umbrella of all Trinamool associations.

Three government employees run the "co-operative" — two from the CMO and one from the Finance Department.

Amitabha Maity, the general secretary of the association is Assistant Secretary at the CMO, while Sanjib Pal, the joint secretary of the association, is an upper division clerk at the CMO. The third, Arun Pal, general secretary of the association, was Assistant Secretary at Finance Department when he retired just a couple of days ago — April 30, 2013.

Like most chit fund business, this too has been accused of duping investors. On November 30, 2010, an employee of Information and Cultural Affairs Department lodged an FIR against the group accusing it of cheating and fraud. In the complaint lodged at Hare Street police station, Arati Saha stated that Amitabha Maity, Sanjib Pal and Arun Pal induced her to make investment with their co-operative with a false assurance of providing exorbitant returns — double the investment in 40 months. However, after the expiry of the stipulated period, Saha claimed she did not even get the principal amount of Rs 56,600 that she had deposited.

Arati, who was suffering from liver cancer, died on March 10, last year. Investigation revealed that she had started depositing money with the co-operative from 2002.

"I wrote a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on March 2, this year urging her to take action against the three officials. But till now, no action has been taken," said Gita, sister of Arati, who is pursuing the case. She had also written a letter to Joint Commissioner of Police.

When contacted, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pallav Kanti Ghosh refused to comment. "I have to see the records and then I can comment," he said.

When The Indian Express contacted the three accused, they rejected the allegations. Arun Pal, now retired, said he was being implicated in the case. "We did not dupe any person who have kept their savings in our federation," he said. Maity refused to comment and Sanjib Pal said he was "unaware of such illegal activities taking place inside the Writers' Buildings".

That the chit fund business has been operating at the Writers' can't be refuted. An official admitted that he deposits Rs 100 per month in one such account. "After Trinamool came to power this association gained momentum. I got my Rs 24,000 back in 2012, but after the Saradha scam I'm not sure whether I will get the rest Rs 4,000," the officer said.