Agartala / Guwahati / Kolkata, November 18 (TIWN Exclusive): As more and more details of the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam come out, it has emerged that the masterminds of the sensational duping case had cast their net far and wide. Now, the latest name to figure in the rogue list is that of a decorated senior Army officer, who received gallantry medals for his operations in the North-East, specially Tripura. . Colonel Govindan Srikumar posted with the Military Intelligence (MI) is alleged to have received `25 lakh from Saradha chief and key accused Sudipto Sen. TIWN expoosed the MI officer in a previous report. Sen, in his 18-page confessional letter to the CBI, which is investigating the scam, had earlier named the Colonel, who was posted in Allahabad when he wrote it. The Colonel, who hails from Kerala, is currently in Delhi.Now, an Army man, in a detailed complaint to CBI chief Ranjit Sinha, has revealed how the Colonel had been involved in Saradha and minting money in the name of covert operations.

The Havildar, who claimed to have worked in the same MI unit, revealed that the modus operandi of the Colonel was to raid the houses of businessmen or any other influential people, who were linked to militant groups and take out all their money and invest it in chit funds like Saradha, with the help of his aides.

In fact, when a Major of his unit questioned the professional ethics of the Colonel’s operations, he was shunted out to Manipur, said the letter, which drew the CBI’s attention to the ongoing investigation into the Saradha scam.

“We are examining the details given in the complaint. At the moment, our investigators are looking into the second layer of beneficiaries of the chit fund, as we have almost concluded our probe into the direct beneficiaries,” said a senior CBI official.

In fact, after Sen’s letter, naming the Colonel, the Army had started an internal probe, which is under way. The Intelligence Corps officer is a recipient of Sena Medal, one of the highest peace-time gallantry awards for military personnel, for his operations in Tripura.

Later, he was put in charge of one of the Army’s secret units for the entire North-East. The unit was called Corps of Intensive Surveillance, modelled on a Russian covert unit, where the intelligence unit is not only mandated to gather information, but also required to act on it. Military sources said that the unit was responsible for ‘neutralising’ many known insurgents in the North-Eastern states.

The Colonel, who was also a recipient of the Chief Minister’s medal in Tripura, for exceptional bravery in counter-insurgency ops, is also the accused in the abduction and murder of three persons, by the Dimapur-based 3 Corps Unit of the Army.

In the complaint to the CBI, the Army Havildar has also mentioned details of the benami properties, which the Colonel has allegedly purchased in Bengaluru and other parts of the country.

Update from Monday, Nov 17

The CBI Monday filed its second chargesheet in the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam, naming company chairman Sudipta Sen, his close aide Debjani Mukherjee, as also police officer-turned Trinamool Congress leader Rajat Majumdar.

Businessmen father-son Aduo Sajjan Agarwal and Sandhir Agarwal, East Bengal club official Debabrata Sarkar and Assamese singer-filmmaker Sadananda Gogoi were among the seven who figured in the chargesheet filed in a lower court.

However, Trinamool's suspended Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh, whose name featured in the first chargesheet filed by the investigating agency Oct 3, did not figure in the document submitted at the court of the additional chief judical magistrate in Alipore.

A CBI statement said the chargesheet was filed in connection with a case registered against M/s Saradha Realty India Ltd. and others.

The chargesheet named many companies of the chit fund aided group - Saradha Realty India Ltd., M/s. Saradha Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Saradha Garden Resort & Hotel Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Saradha Housing Pvt. Ltd.

The cases were filed under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) and Section 4 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978.

After it took over the probe in May as per a Supreme Court directive, the CBI named Sen, Mukherjee, Ghosh, four Saradha Group companies and Strategy Media - a company owned by Ghosh - in the first chargeshet submitted before the court of the metropolitan magistrate here.

Saradha promoter Sen, and Mukherjee were arrested from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir in April 2013 shortly after the scam into light.

Ghosh, who headed Saradha's media arm, has been behind bars since November 2013 for his alleged complicity in the swindle.

The CBI over the past few months arrested Majumdar, Sajjan and Sandhir, Sarkar and Gogoi.

The Saradha group firms closed shop across Bengal in April last year after being unable to pay back the depositors -- mainly poor people who, lured by the promise of huge returns, parked their life's savings with the company.

As the company went bust, many agents and investors committed suicide, and protests took place across the state.