KOLKATA, June 16:
The CBI was today granted seven days custody of the main accused in the Saradha chitfund scam, Sudipta Sen, suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh and four others by a local court in connection with the probe ordered by the Supreme Court.
Additional chief judicial magistrate Haradhan Mukhopadhyay granted the custody of the six accused on a plea by the CBI to unearth the larger conspiracy in the scam.
CBI also got custody of Debjani Mukherjee, a close associate of Sen, Manoj Nagel, Arvind Chouhan and Somnath Dutta, who were senior officials of the Saradha Group of Companies.
The central agency had prayed for 10 days custody of the accused, but the court granted a week.
All the six accused were in the custody of the West Bengal Police at present.
The Supreme Court had on May nine ordered a CBI probe into chit fund scam in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam in which various companies, including Saradha, allegedly duped investors of around Rs 10,000 crore, while taking note of allegations of scamsters being ‘patronised’ by people in ‘high positions’.
Holding the scam as a ‘sordid affair’, the bench had said that investigation by the State police had not unfortunately made any significant headway in recovering the money.
Referring to a SEBI report, the apex court had said that the Saradha group had floated as many as 160 companies and four of them were the front runners in the sordid affair.
It was also noted that 2,21,000 agents were working for Saradha Realty India Ltd and the report estimated the collection made by the Saradha Group of companies at Rs 2,459 crore.
Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee were arrested from a hotel in Kashmir’s tourist town Sonmarg on April 23, 2013 and were taken in custody by the Bidhannagar Police of West Bengal.
The others were arrested later by the State police. (PTI)

HYDERABAD, June 16:
Hearing in the quid pro quo investments case allegedly involving YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy will commence in a special CBI court here from July 21.
The court will also take up hearing on the discharge petitions filed by some of the accused in the case on the same day.
Meanwhile, for the first time after Lok Sabha elections, Jagan, who represents Pulivendula Assembly seat, today made a personal appearance in the court.
Former Andhra Pradesh ministers Sabitha Indra Reddy, Geetha Reddy, Dharmana Prasada Rao and Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao, who were among the accused in the case, also appeared before the Principal Special Court for CBI cases here in connection with different aspects of the case.
Judge N Balayogi directed the prosecution and defence counsels to start arguments on the charges pertaining to the first chargesheet filed in the case. Accordingly, the prosecution and defence counsels agreed to start arguments on the charges after which the judge posted the matter to July 21.
India Cements MD N Srinivasan, some senior IAS officers and some industrialists who are among other accused in the different chargesheets filed in connection with the case also appeared before the court.
The CBI has filed ten chargesheets in the case.
The first chargesheet was filed against Jagan and 12 others on March 31, 2012 in the issue relating to allotment of land to the tune of 75 acres each to Hetero Group of Companies and Aurobindo Group as alleged quid pro quo in return of investment to the tune of Rs 29.5 crore they had made in Jagan’s companies during the tenure as chief minister of his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
The case pertains to alleged investments made by various private firms and individuals to the tune of several crore rupees in Jagan’s businesses, as part of quid-pro-quo arrangement in exchange for alleged favours by the erstwhile YSR Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) Government.
CBI has accused Jagan of amassing huge wealth through illegal means by misusing the office of YSR when he was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 2004 and 2009. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 16:
The Kedarnath temple committee has expressed dissatisfaction over the restoration work being carried out by ASI at the shrine which was damaged in last year’s flash floods in Uttarakhand, but the Government agency has squarely rejected these claims.
Ganesh Godiyal, president of Badri Kedar Temple Committee, has said that the Archaeological Survey of India should adopt a “transparent and efficient” approach and make “good use of Government money”.
“I asked ASI about the claim it has made about spending Rs 35 lakh on restoration work so far. I got a reply from its Dehradun circle mentioning a list of 18 to 20 items on which the expenditure was incurred. They have also taken credit for cleaning the temple premises, which is false. The cleaning work was done by the temple committee,” Godiyal told.
“We are not satisfied with the way ASI has worked. They have just installed the temple door which is also not of good quality. I have forwarded their reply to temple officer Anil Sharma to verify their claims. After his report, we will decide on our future course of action,” he said.
ASI was handed the responsibility of restoring the temple which was badly affected by the devastating floods and landslides last June in Uttarakhand in which over 5,700 people were presumed dead by the state government.
But the temple committee is not satisfied with the way ASI has worked. According to Godiyal, the committee does not want to create any controversy but expects ASI to be transparent and efficient in its work.
“We don’t want to create an issue out of it. We just want ASI to work transparently and with more efficiency. They should make good use of government money. What have they done in last one year?” he asked.
“They have not even started work to rebuild Ishaan temple which was washed away in the floods. Re-installation of the stones, which were dislodged, is also pending. They have done nothing to solve the problem of water leakage from the roof of the temple. The problem persists during rains,” he said.
However, dismissing Godiyal’s allegations, Atul Bhargava, superintendent archaeologist of ASI’s Dehradun circle said, “We got only one month for the work so far. In that time we have installed the door and cleared the platform. Apart from that, our team did scientific cleaning some 8ft to 9ft inside the temple. After that, the doors of the temple were closed.
“We have resumed work from June 6 and are cleaning the remaining portion of the temple’s interior. We have also started carving on dislodged stones from the eastern side. The Ishaan temple is not our responsibility as it was completely washed away in the flood. I don’t understand the reason for their dissatisfaction.”
Godiyal further said, “They have cleaned the stones which turned black under the sun. We, too, could have done that as that was the easiest thing to do and did not require any expertise.
“ASI has claimed to have spent around Rs 3 lakh on travel by helicopter but till now their team of four of five people has visited the site only thrice.”
He also questioned the scientific procedure mentioned by ASI in its reply.
“ASI has repeatedly mentioned ‘scientific procedure’ adopted by them in the work. They have also said that they have purchased equipment for the work but where have they kept them?” he asked.
In his response, Bhargava said that “as far as expenditure is concerned, we have purchased some equipment which is with us. IIT Chennai’s expert team has visited the site to assess the condition of the foundation and the structure. Their second team will visit again on June 19.
“This is not modern construction work, hence it takes time. An ASI team of seven-eight people is there at the site on rotation basis. I have visited the site with our conservation director. Work is on but we can’t fix any time frame for it.” (PTI)