West Bengal: ED attaches assets worth Rs 5 crore of journalist Suman Chattopadhyay in ‘chit fund scam’

The enforcement directorate has attached assets worth Rs 5 crore belonging to West Bengal based journalist Suman Chattopadhyay and his family members in an alleged chit fund scam, National Herald reported. The assets attached by the ED include bank accounts and duplex flats in and around Kolkata.

Chattopadhyay had been previously arrested by the CBI in a “chit fund scam” in 2018 involving a company called I-Core. He had been jailed for over 400 days without bail or trial. Last year, the ED also filed a supplementary chargesheet against him as part of its probe into the Saradha scam.

In a statement on Thursday, the ED claimed the attaching of Chattopadhyay’s assets was part of the I-Core investigation.

“I-Core group companies ran a chit fund scam and the group illegally raised a huge amount of money from lakhs of gullible investors by promising unrealistic returns,” the statement said. It alleged that Chattopadhyay “personally and through his company Disha Productions and Media Private Limited, has received proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 9.83 crore from the I-Core group in the guise of business investment in the company.”

Chattopadhyay began his journalism career in 1981. He became the founding editor of Bengali news channel ABP Ananda, launched in late 2004, before quitting it in 2005. In that year, he joined Kolkata TV as its founding editor and quit the channel in 2006. The CBI began questioning him in 2014 over allegations that he had received money from I-Core. Read Newslaundry’s detailed piece here.