The Serious Fraud Investigation Office has been given time till December for completing its probe into the alleged fraudulent money pooling schemes run by 54 entities, including Saradha group.

A special task force of the SFIO recently submitted an interim report to the Corporate Affairs Ministry in this regard.

According to sources, the SFIO has been given time by the Corporate Affairs Ministry till December for completing the probe.

SFIO, which comes under this Ministry, was asked to probe the matter in April this year in the wake of massive public outcry over the scam perpetrated by Kolkata-based Saradha group that duped investors of thousands of crores.

Apart from Saradha group firms, SFIO is probing the entities from various other groups, including Rose Valley, Icore E-Services and Sunshine India Land Developers.

Fourteen Saradha group entities, including Saradha Realty India, Saradha Agro Development, Saradha Exports, Saradha Construction Company and Saradha Garden Resorts and Hotels, are under the scanner.

Besides, nine entities from Sunshine India Land Developers group, 11 from Icore E-Services Ltd group and 19 from Rose Valley group are being probed.

“We have received one interim report (from the SFIO) on the 54 companies,” Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot had said last month.

There have been difficulties for SFIO in getting data about the companies under investigation as they have not been very forthcoming in sharing information.

There were public protests over the Saradha case, which came to be known as ‘chit funds scam’ in West Bengal and other Eastern and North Eastern states, even though the suspected entities were not actually registered as chit funds.

Separately, an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) is working on guidelines to tackle the menace of illegal money raising activities or ponzi schemes that are mushrooming in different parts of the country.

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