At least two people involved in money collection schemes committed suicide in the State here on Monday. With the two incidents of suicide, the death toll following the Saradha scam has risen to over 10 now.

According to the police, Jagdish Ray, a resident of Sodepur in the North 24-Parganas district of the State, committed suicide after his family was roughed up by some depositors a few days back. Jagdish’s son Bidhan was running a local deposit mobilising company called Alex Infrastructure in the area.

In another incident in Hooghly district of West Bengal, Jayanta Sarkar, a senior official of another deposit taking firm Halo India Express allegedly took his life. Police say Sarkar was being pressured by depositors for refund of the money.

Following the Saradha Group – that is alleged to have mobilised nearly Rs 20,000 crore – going bust, deposit taking companies and agents have been under pressure with investors demanding a refund.

PTI adds from Hooghly/Barasat : Indicating the first murder in the Saradha scam, police said Sarkar (48) was allegedly killed with a sharp weapon by suspected depositors at Chunchura in Hooghly district.

According to an FIR lodged at the Chunchura police station by Sarkar’s wife, Papiya Sarkar, three men, Abhijit Saha and Abdullah Rashid from Cooch Behar and Biplab Biswas from Haringhata, killed her husband and draped the body in a cloth before they fled.

Regarding the alleged murder case, Chunchura SP, Tanmoy Roychowdhury, quoting the victim’s wife said that Sarkar had repayed most of the amount taken from the depositors.

He said Sarkar, who also owned a factory at Howrah and an office in Kolkata, was trying to sell the two premises to raise funds to repay money to depositors.

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