Bengal bizman arrested in chit fund scam sent to three days CBI custody

Kolkata, Oct 26 (SocialNews.XYZ) Businessman Sanjay Singh, who was arrested by the CBI in the multi-crore Sanmarg Cooperative chit fund scam on Tuesday night and is said to be close to arrested Trinamool Congress leader Raju Shahani, was on Wednesday sent to three days custody of the agency by a court in West Bengal's West Burdwan district.

On September 2, Trinamool leader Raju Sahani, the Chairman of Halisahar Municipality North 24 Parganas district, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation for his alleged involvement with the same chit fund entity and Rs 80 lakh recovered from his possession.

On Wednesday, the CBI counsel told the court that Sanjay Singh was in charge of a local television channel run by Sanmarg Cooperative and by virtue of this, was extremely close to ponzi entity founder Soumyraup Bhowmik, who is currently absconding, and his custody is required for questioning about the whereabouts of Bhowmik.

The court accepted the arguments of the CBI counsel and sent Sanjay Singh to CBI custody. It is learnt that CBI sleuths will bring him back to the agency's Nizam Palace office in central Kolkata on Wednesday night only and start questioning him on this count.

While arresting Sahani, the CBI traced a bank account held by him in Bangkok and preliminary investigation has revealed that huge amounts were transferred to this bank account from the chit fund entity.

The CBI also told the court then that Sahani had held the bank account in Bangkok jointly with Bhowmik, the absconding founder of Sanmarg Cooperative. It also claimed that its investigation has got some definite proof that Sahani provided safe shelter to Bhowmik at his residence at a point of time.

Sources said that there were enough reasons to believe that a portion of the chit fund proceeds were also invested in the multiple businesses run by Sanjay Singh.

Source: IANS