CBI to seek MPS chief’s custody, grill 4 directors

KOLKATA: The CBI, which has raided 19 offices and residences of people related to MPS, will question four of its top directors in the coming weeks. CBI sources said they will appeal for the custody of MPS chief Pramatha Nath Manna, who is currently in jail, after going through the paper seized during Tuesday’s raid.
CBI sources said they have found that Manna had initially spent a few crores to attract new investors to MPS.To make these payments, investigators believe Manna used the profits that he made illegally from Satadal Savings, which collected money from Midnapore homes from the early-1980s until it went bust in 1997.
CBI officials now want to identify four top CEOs who the MPS chief had appointed over the last four years of Left rule. According to police, one of them, who controlled the proceedings of MPS Infotech, had been provided with a car for office and personal use and had even bought a palatial building in Lake Town-Baguiati area. The probe team is also certain that Manna had helped at least three other directors of rival financial firms in turning their black money white. They are certain that Saradha top boss Sudipta Sen had been in touch with Manna in the past four years and the two had indeed met in Jhargram.
“We will question Manna on his political links. At least two Left leaders from South 24-Parganas and one from North 24-Parganas have been attending his programmes. A few photographs in this regard have surfaced and which we might look at. We have asked the Lake Town and Jhargram police to give us more details,” said a CBI source.
MPS Greenery was the only deposit-taking company in Bengal that had obtained clearance from the previous Left government to buy land above the permissible limit of 2 acres under provincial land laws. Armed with the so-called 14Y clearance, which was granted by the land and land reforms department on recommendation of the animal husbandry department, MPS had built a large poultry farm and resort in Jhargram. It is said that he had the backing of a top district leader of the Left who had provided plenty of support in this regard.
MPS had raised Rs 1,600 crore till March 2013 through its various collective investment schemes. Fresh collections started to dwindle following the collapse of Saradha in March-April 2013. The Sebi had initiated recovery proceedings against MPS in October 2013, when the market regulator asked it to return Rs 1,520 crore collected from investors through unauthorized collective investment schemes, along with applicable returns, interest payments and other related charges.
As per these orders, “MPS Greenery has not paid dues amounting to Rs 1,520 crore along with returns to investors” in respect of Sebi’s recovery proceedings, as also the interest, costs, charges and other related payments. The Sebi has told West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Limited to freeze Rs 20,046,000, along with any interest and dividend becoming payable.