{
 "no": 82,
 "id": "case-82",
 "sk": 20130423,
 "year": 2013,
 "date": "Surfaced Apr 2013",
 "cat": "Consumer harm",
 "sev": "red",
 "title": "Saradha. Small savers cleaned out, and politicians in the frame",
 "stamp": "Depositors ruined. Investigation still crawling.",
 "human": {
  "v": "Hundreds of thousands of small depositors across eastern India, many of them very poor; suicides were reported among agents and investors",
  "est": true
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "A collapse put at <b>over ₹10,000 crore</b> across West Bengal, Odisha and Assam",
  "est": true
 },
 "what": "The Saradha Group collected deposits from hundreds of thousands of small savers across eastern India through a web of companies, and collapsed in April 2013. The Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation in 2014 after the initial probe indicated the involvement of politicians across three states.",
 "dodge": "The investigation became a jurisdictional fight between the central agency and the state government, culminating in a police commissioner being questioned over destroyed evidence and the state refusing cooperation. More than a decade on, senior political figures named early have not been tried, and depositors have recovered a fraction of what they lost.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "West Bengal state government",
   "r": "Regulation of deposit-taking; accused of obstructing the CBI"
  },
  {
   "n": "Securities and Exchange Board of India",
   "r": "Collective investment regulation; acted years after the schemes began"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "The state government said it had set up its own commission and a compensation fund for depositors, and characterised the central investigation as politically motivated.",
 "alleg": "Political protection is <em>alleged and, in the case of most figures named, untested in court</em>. The collapse and the losses are not in dispute.",
 "alt": "A regulator that acts when unregistered deposit-taking reaches lakhs of people, and an investigation not paralysed by which government is running it.",
 "estimates": {
  "costInrCrore": 10000
 },
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "Deccan Herald: SC orders CBI probe into the chit fund scam",
   "url": "https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/story/india%2Fsupreme-court-orders-cbi-probe-into-chit-fund-scam-391943.html",
   "tier": 2
  },
  {
   "label": "ThePrint: SC declines to monitor the Saradha probe",
   "url": "https://theprint.in/india/governance/supreme-court-refuses-to-monitor-ongoing-cbi-investigation-into-saradha-chit-fund-scam/190754/",
   "tier": 2
  }
 ],
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-82/"
}