Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court today directed that the Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen Commission, formed to enquire into the Saradha Group and other similar companies, should entertain applications by people affected by other ponzi schemes.
Justice Dipankar Dutta, taking up a petition by a person affected by a similar company, directed that the commission would entertain and consider his application within seven days of receipt of the order.
Petitioner Mohammed Mehmud Alam, who had allegedly invested Rs 47,000 with Premier Group of Companies that ran a `chitfund scheme`, had written to the Commission on December 4 2013 seeking to know whether it was entertaining applicants affected by other companies.
Alam`s counsel Arindam Das submitted before the court of Justice Dutta that the commission had replied that the question of entertaining those affected by other companies did not arise.
Challenging this, the petitioner had moved the court seeking its intervention.
Das submitted that a Rs 500 crore corpus created for the benefit of those affected could not thus be utilised for all the affected.
The state counsel submitted that the interpretation of the notification of April 24, 2013 forming the commission should be that it was to deal with Saradha Group and allied companies.
The judge, however, after going through the notification and hearing the arguments, decided that interpretation would be Saradha Group and similar companies, meaning that other chitfund companies running ponzi schemes would also come under its ambit.
