ED attaches assets of P Chidambaram’s wife: Action in Saradha chit fund case, assets worth over Rs 6 crore seized

The ED has taken action on Friday in the Saradha chit fund case. The ED has attached assets worth more than Rs 6 crore belonging to Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram, ex-IPS officer and former CPM MLA Debendranath Biswas and former Assam cabinet minister Anjan Dutt.

The ED said that a provisional order for attachment of movable assets worth Rs 3.30 crore and immovable assets worth Rs 3 crore was issued under the Money Laundering Act.

Sharda Group had committed a fraud of 2500 crores by running a Ponzi scheme. 200 companies were working under this group.

The money laundering case pertains to an alleged chit fund scam by the Saradha group in West Bengal, Assam and Odisha till 2013.

According to the ED, the Saradha Group company has raised around Rs 2,459 crore, of which around Rs 1,983 crore is due till date to the depositors excluding interest amount. The ED has so far attached assets worth about Rs 600 crore in this case.

this is sharda chit fund case
This fraud was done through a Ponzi scheme run by the Sharda Group. Sharda Group was a conglomerate of 200 companies. In just a few years, Sharda Group earned Rs 2500 crores. This Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2012 when SEBI cracked down on it. In 2014, its owner Sudipto Sen, along with others, was arrested on charges including money laundering and fraud.

What is money laundering?
Money laundering is the process of converting large amounts of illegal money into legitimate money. Simply put, converting black money into white is called money laundering. Black money is that money, which has no source of income, that is, no tax has been paid on it.

In the case of money laundering, it appears that the money has come from a legal source, but in reality the original source of the money is a criminal or illegal activity. Fraudsters use this process to hide illegally collected money.

Simply put, money laundering is the process of concealing the source of money, which is often derived from illegal activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling. That is, the process of converting illegally received money into a legitimate source is called money laundering.

Through money laundering, from drug dealers to businessmen, corrupt officials, mafia, leaders commit frauds ranging from crores to billions of rupees.