Bengal: Trinamool leader's son held in Rs 350 crore chit fund scam remanded to 10-day police custody

Kolkata, Oct 26 (IANS) A district court in the industrial township of Asansol on Sunday remanded Tahsin Ahmed, son of Shakil Ahmed aka Master Shakil, co-president of the Trinamool Congress’s minority wing in West Burdwan district of West Bengal, to ten days of police custody. He was arrested on Saturday for his alleged involvement in a Rs 350 crore chit fund scam.

On Sunday afternoon, Tahsin Ahmed was presented at the district court. While the public prosecutors sought police custody for him, the defence counsel moved a bail petition on behalf of his client.

However, the judge of the district court rejected his bail plea and remanded him to ten days of police custody.

He was arrested late on Saturday evening from a Jharkhand-bound bus run by an inter-state bus service operator near Chandrachud intersection on National Highway 19. He had planned to escape to Jharkhand. Gold worth Rs 31 lakh was seized from his possession.

The main allegation against Tahsin Ahmed is that he collected deposits worth around Rs 350 crore from around 3,000 individuals in Asansol through an unlicensed corporate entity operating out of the town.

He promised 14 per cent monthly returns, i.e., Rs 2.8 lakh on a Rs 1 lakh investment in 20 months. However, he went absconding on October 15, which was the due date for payment of returns to the depositors.

Instead, he released a video message on his social media page expressing his inability to pay the assured returns to the depositors by the promised deadline of October 20.

The matter was first brought to public notice on Thursday by the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, through a social media post, where he also shared the video message by Tahsin Ahmed.

In his post, the LoP demanded the immediate arrest of Tahsin Ahmed as well as a probe by central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the matter. He also demanded full repayment of the deposits collected by the said entity to the depositors.

--IANS

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