Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has put 61 vacant plots belonging to Saradha Group of Companies on the block, adding one more chapter to the tedious process of recovering money lost by lakhs of depositors in one of the biggest financial frauds ever to take place in Bengal.

The vacant lands will be sold to highest bidders by an e-auction conducted by an agency nominated by the market regulator Sebi.

The online auction will take place on July 17. The cumulative reserve price of the plots are about Rs 25 crore.

The sale process is being initiated by an order of the Calcutta High Court passed on June 27, 2022.

“The Hon’ble Justice S. P. Talukdar one man committee has directed Securities and Exchange Board of India to proceed with auction of properties of Saradha Group of Companies. Accordingly, Quikr Realty Ltd has been engaged by SEBI to assist it in sale of the properties mentioned herein on “as is where is and whatever there is” basis,” Sebi said in a public notice this evening.

All the 61 plots are located in Bengal and spread across places such as Bishnupur, Baruipur of South 24 Parganas, Contai in East Midnapur among others.

The one man committee under justice (retd) Sailendra Prasad Talukdar was formed by Calcutta HC in 2015 with the object to give relief to deprived investors and save lot of judicial hours, for implementing a process to create a corpus fund by selling properties, both movable and immovable, of the chit fund companies and its’ directors by public auction and frame a proper scheme for paying the amounts due to the investors.

State and other agencies including the companies were directed to render all requisite assistance to the committee, which is in the process to recover money by selling properties of several deposit mobilising companies (chit funds companies), including Saradha, MPS Group of companies, Alchemist among others.

As on September 23, 2022, Sebi has deposited Rs 1.23 crore in the bank account opened by the committee in respect of Saradha Group of Companies.

The June 27, 2022 order passed by Justice I. P. Mukerji and Subhendu Samanta said the sale will have to be approved by this committee. “The committee shall have the power to order re-advertisement or re-auction by SEBI or any other organisation if the circumstances so warrant. The offer accepted by the committee shall be placed before this court for confirmation and thereafter the same will become final.”

Saradha, founded by Sudipto Sen who is now behind bars, estimated to have raised about Rs 2,500 crore before it was busted in 2013. It had a depositor base of 17 lakh, mostly in Bengal but also in Assam and Odisha.