Bengal’s Saradha chit fund victims await justice amid LS polls corruption discourse

KOLKATA: For the past decade, 52-year-old Rishin Majumdar has been working two shifts, trying to repay a hefty Rs 30 lakh loan he took out to compensate the investors of Saradha Group, where he once served as an agent.

“After the Saradha group collapsed in 2013, people who invested money through me wanted it back. I was beaten, and even my family members were not spared. I was then forced to take a Rs 30 lakh loan from a local money lender. I lost Rs five lakh in the chit fund,” Majumdar said.

His story is a familiar one among lakhs of people who fell victim to the multi-crore chit fund scams that rocked West Bengal in 2013.

As corruption scandals like school recruitment scams take centre stage in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, the enduring and hopeful victims of the 2013 chit fund scams—one of the state’s largest financial scandals since independence—are still waiting for justice after more than ten years.

The chit fund scam in Bengal saw several companies, most notably the Saradha Group, exploit the trust of investors with promises of high returns. At its peak in 2012, as many as 200 chit-fund companies operated in Bengal.

Over a decade has passed, yet the quest for justice for these victims remains unfulfilled, their lives forever altered by the deceit and betrayal of those they had trusted with their lifelong savings.

Ashok Barui from Ballygunge and Sailen Pal from Baruipur represent the faces of this scandal. Despite their education, limited opportunities led them to work as agents for these chit-fund companies, persuading thousands to invest their hard-earned money.

Their story mirrors that of many others in Bengal, all chasing the dream of swift wealth, only to be left in financial ruin.

“I had collected Rs 20 lakh from neighbours, relatives, and friends for the Saradha group. I took my family’s savings of Rs 1 lakh and invested. Since the company shut down, I was beaten up. I returned some of the money from my pocket, but it was too little,” said Sailen, son of an auto driver, who worked as an agent in the Saradha group.