Saradha Garden property owners left in the lurch

KOLKATA: Subir Chakraborty never knew that the flat he bought and got the mutation done in his name may be attached for no fault of his own. He has even cleared the bank loan with his hard-earned money and also paid the government the required registration fees and other charges.
But his financial clarity didn’t give him immunity to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) attachment notice.For, the property — Saradha Gardens — was promoted by Sudipta Sen’s Saradha Group at Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas. ED officials argue that the land was brought with ill-gotten money and therefore, all property on the land will be treated as proceeds of crime.
“Sen cheated us like he cheated many in the state. But I invested whatever I had to buy this property,” Chakraborty said. Many like him are now left in the lurch as they are clueless about what to do if their property is attached.
An ED team headed by additional director Manoj Kumar on Monday attached more than 40 apartments, bungalows and plots of land at Saradha Garden. The agency has also identified some more property that they are likely to attach. According to sources in ED, the attachment is valued around Rs 100 crore. A few months back, the block land revenue office had asked the residents and plot owners to submit their documents with the local office. While some of the residents have submitted their deeds, most of them are yet to do so.
Residents felt Sen was in a hurry to sell the plots in the latter half of 2012. “He kept selling at whatever amount he could. Eventually, the same plot was sold to more than one person and none thought they would be duped,” said Shubhodas Bhattacharya, secretary of the Saradha Garden Cultural Society. “We find new faces every day looking for the plot they were sold. Most of the plots are disputed,” Bhattacharya added.
“But how can they attach our property when we have been paying tax for it?” protested Baby Thakur, standing in front of her two-storied house. “We haven’t cheated anyone. Why are we being penalized?”
According to an ED official, if it is found that a property is bought or derived from the proceeds of crime, it can be attached. “The decision to attach a property is irrespective of its status,” he added.
The Mandal family bought a plot at Bhasa from Alok Das in 2003. A few years later, Sen bought some parcels of land in the area and the family found that they were inside a new community called Saradha Garden. “What can we do if he has cheated people?” said Mithu Mandal.
“Many of the plot owners did not even have the time to pay the entire amount to Sen. As a result they could not register the property. Now they are in a fix as their money is gone and Sen is behind bars,” said Bhattacharya. The 100-odd families in the area have been pooling in money to pay for common facilities like electricity bills and security guards, which Saradha was supposed to pay.