After 13 years, Saradha chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen is set to be out of jail after the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted him bail in the last two of the 380-odd cases related to the multi-crore ponzi scheme.
Granting him bail on the condition that he will not promote, manage, or act as an agent or consultant for any financial entity, the Division Bench of Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Justice Uday Kumar observed, “The prolonged detention, the admitted administrative failures, and the petitioner’s critical medical condition necessitate judicial intervention. We are of the firm opinion that the petitioner has made out an exceptional case for bail.”
Sen, 64, has been asked to furnish a bond of Rs 5,000 with two sureties of the same amount to the chief judicial magistrate of Barasat for his release.
He has been asked to surrender his passport and told not to leave West Bengal without prior written permission from the High Court.
Stating that “any substantiated report of witness tampering or intimidation shall result in the suo motu cancellation of his bail”, the High Court has directed him to keep an active mobile phone number, whose live location has to be shared 24×7 with the Investigating Officer.
Sen has also been asked to report to the Office-in-Charge of the Barasat Police District in North 24 Parganas district once a month and attend the trial, either virtually or in person.
Sen, who is currently lodged in the Presidency Correctional Home, is likely to be released on Thursday.
The two cases related to the ponzi scheme in which the High Court granted bail to Sen on Wednesday were being probed by the West Bengal Police.
Out of 389 cases related to the ponzi scheme, 77 were transferred to the CBI to probe larger conspiracy and money trail. Amajit De, Special Public Prosecutor for the CBI, told the High Court that all the 77 cases transferred to the CBI have reached the stage of finality with the filing of four primary charge sheets. The CBI has also confirmed that the petitioner has been granted bail in all 77 matters and has duly furnished his bail bonds.
Sen had approached the Calcutta High Court in 2024 for bail, stating that although a chargesheet was filed in the case a decade ago, he had not received the relevant documents.
During the hearings, his counsel, Sabir Ahmed, submitted that after the financial irregularities in the chit fund scheme came to the fore, a total of 389 cases were filed against the Saradha Group.
Sen was the chairman and Director of the Saradha Group.
He was arrested on April 27, 2013, and has been in jail since then.
Sen’s counsel submitted that despite the filing of a chargesheet on April 9, 2014, the mandatory “police papers” had not been given to him for over a decade.
“Also, the trial has reached a total stalemate as the State (government/police) had admitted that the original Case Record is currently missing… the petitioner (Sen) cannot be made to suffer indefinitely for the State’s administrative failures, especially when the trial has become remote and bleak,” Sen’s counsel told the High Court.
It was further stated that Sen, now 64 years of age, suffers from “multiple life-threatening co-morbidities” and has recently survived a brain stroke. His counsel also stated that the pre-trial detention has already exceeded double the maximum sentence he might have served upon conviction.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Wednesday directed the Lower Court to take immediate steps for the reconstruction of the missing records in one of the cases – Case No. 937 of 2013.
“The CJM ( Chief Judicial Magistrate) shall submit a status report regarding the progress of such reconstruction to the Registrar (Judicial Services) within four weeks from the date of the order,” the High Court stated.
“Also, once the records are reconstructed and papers are supplied, the learned trial court has been directed to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis to the extent possible. No unnecessary adjournments shall be granted to either side,” it added.
The High Court also directed the police to provide Sen the “police papers” under Section 207 of the CrPC within three weeks from the date of his release and not later than four weeks from Wednesday.
The Division Bench also directed Sen to fully cooperate with the trial court in the process of reconstructing the missing records.”
Founded in 2006, the Saradha Group promised massive returns, duping thousands of small investors before collapsing. It was alleged that Sen had collected close to Rs 3,500 crores from 17 lakh investors before it collapsed in 2013.
In April 2013, Sudipta Sen, along with associates Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chauhan, was arrested in Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir.
At the same time, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in West Bengal formed a four-member judicial inquiry commission, headed by retired Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Shyamal Kumar Sen, to probe the scam.
With Sen getting bail amid the election in West Bengal, the ruling TMC questioned the timing of his release.
“Sudipta Sen was in CBI custody. Why did he not say anything? Before the election, he suddenly gets bail. Is there any pressure? We do not know,” TMC’s social media in-charge Debangshu Bhattacharya said.
Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Sen’s release would reveal his connection with the TMC.
“We feel that we can get to know many things because it was with Sudipta Sen’s funding that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fought elections,” Chowdhury, who is contesting from Baharmpur Assembly seat in Murshidabad district, claimed.
“We all remember Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Sen in Kalimpong, and then crores of money were given in the name of donation… We also know that a TMC spokesperson had been jailed in the Saradha chit fund case,” added Chowdhury, referring to TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, who is also contesting the Assembly elections from Beleghata in Kolkata.