CBI raids nine places over chit fund scam

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at different places in the state on Friday, in connection with a chit fund case of the ATM Group.

Raids have been conducted at nine places, including the offices and residences of the Chief Managing Director (CMD) and other directors of the group.

A case was registered in this connection on June 6 in 2017 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The case had started on charges of criminal breach of trust (406 IPC), cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property (420 IPC), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), for voluntarily causing hurt (323 IPC), criminal intimidation (506 IPC) and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention (34 IPC).

The central investigating agency had initiated a probe following the Supreme Court's order.

Teams comprising CBI officers went to nine different places to conduct raids and several incriminating documents were seized.

After preliminary investigation, CBI officers have come to know that the group had collected around Rs 4 to Rs 5 crore through different chit fund schemes.

The modus operandi of the group was quite similar to that of other chit fund groups. Investigation has revealed that the group had assured high rate of return to collect money from people. But the investors have not got back their money and the invested amount has been allegedly misappropriated.

Officers of the investigating agency have seized several documents during the raid and they will be going through the same to get more information about the group.

It may be mentioned that the probe into all the chit fund cases have recently started gaining momentum and officers of the central investigating agency have conducted raids in connection with several chit fund cases in the past few weeks.