Ponzi scam victims in Bengal will not vote for Trinamool

Victims are pained to see Mamata Banerjee protecting the accused in the Saradha and Rose Valley scams that had taken away all their savings.

 

New Delhi: Over 1.7 million depositors affected by the multi-crore Saradha and Rose Valley scams in Bengal have this time decided to vote against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The depositors have said that they have taken this decision after the showdown in Kolkata where Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seen obstructing the investigation into the Saradha scam being done by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Mala Das, one of the defrauded investors affected by the Saradha scam, told The Sunday Guardian that she, her family and relatives have decided not to vote for Mamata Banerjee and her party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls because she was pained to see that the Chief Minister was protecting the accused in the scam that had taken away all her savings.

“We belong to a lower middle class family and we had invested in Saradha because we were told that it was giving lucrative returns, but when we realised that we had been scammed by this company and we had lost all our savings, we were devastated. We believed in the Chief Minister who said that she will return our money and punish all those who are guilty. However, it has been years now, but nothing has happened. Moreover, Mamata Didi was protesting when the CBI had come to catch the guilty. What interest does she have in protecting the criminals? Why should we vote for somebody who is protecting the criminals who have looted our money?” Mala Das asked.

Kamal Mahato, another affected victim of the Saradha scam from Jhargram, resonated the same feeling. He said, “The Bengal government and the TMC have done nothing to deliver justice to the families that have been affected by this huge scam. It was the money of the poor people that had been looted by companies that regularly shared stages with people in power. Why should we vote for someone who cannot look after the poor people?”

“Instead of doing justice to the poor families, she was seen protecting Rajeev Kumar who is believed to have some crucial information about the scam. Is this the kind of justice the Chief Minister wants for her people?” Mahato asked.

The Saradha Group ran a ponzi scheme in West Bengal, luring the poor and vulnerable people from rural and semi-urban Bengal to invest in the Group’s companies in lieu of huge returns, but the Group went bust in April 2013 after which the scam came to light. The Saradha Group of companies affected millions of people in Bengal and the scam ran into thousands of crores of rupees.

The Rose Valley scam was also a similar ponzi scheme run in Bengal and had similarly looted thousands of poor and rural families of Bengal. Affected families from the Rose Valley scam have also said that they won’t vote for the TMC this time.

Shayamol Majhi, one of those affected by the Rose Valley scam, said that people from his village in Kanthi have decided to go against the ruling TMC this time as they have lost hopes from this government.

“There has been no justice done to us. We have been waiting for the last seven years, but nothing has happened. Investigations are going slow, the state government is not cooperating and the CBI is also going slow. We need to send a clear message to the people in power that we are the affected ones.” Shayamol Majhi said.

The affected victims of these ponzi schemes from West Bengal had also come to Delhi to register their protest against the ruling TMC government after the slugfest that broke out between the TMC government in Bengal and the CBI last year. They had then blamed the Mamata Banerjee government for shielding the corrupt and preventing the CBI from bringing the accused to book.