The Calcutta High Court has directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate allegations that properties linked to the Vibgyor chit-fund company were sold or transferred despite court restrictions, and has ordered the start of seizure proceedings for assets that have not yet been confiscated.
A division bench of Justices Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Sudip Deb issued the directions during a hearing on Tuesday after the West Bengal government submitted a report on alleged illegal property sales. The court has fixed November 26 for the next hearing and directed the state government, the committee formed to hold the properties and the ED to submit detailed reports.
According to the state’s report, a preliminary investigation conducted through the Directorate of Economic Offences found that several properties under the custody of a committee constituted on the High Court’s orders had changed hands between 2021 and 2025 in violation of the applicable restrictions. The properties included assets in the Dooars region of north Bengal, valued at around Rs 54 crore, as well as properties in other parts of the state.
The state government sought additional time to submit a complete investigation report. During the hearing, lawyers representing depositors, Shubhashish Chakraborty and Arindam Das, alleged that properties were being registered and sold through other entities despite the court’s prohibitions. The allegations were made in the ongoing proceedings concerning the recovery and protection of Vibgyor-linked assets.
The court’s direction places the ED at the centre of the next stage of the investigation. It also requires the authorities to begin the process of securing properties that remain outside the scope of earlier confiscation proceedings. The supplied report does not specify the total number of properties involved or identify the individual transactions that are under examination.
Vibgyor came under scrutiny during the period of the Saradha chit-fund case, with allegations of financial fraud reported from several parts of West Bengal. According to the report, the company’s owner, Raja Bhadra, was summoned multiple times by Kolkata Police and was later arrested by a special team of the city police’s detective department at Delhi airport after he returned to India.
Police sources cited in the report alleged that Vibgyor had collected nearly Rs 500 crore from the market by promising high returns. The company reportedly invested in the housing and film industries and used those investments to attract deposits over several years. Its properties were subsequently confiscated, but the latest proceedings concern allegations that some assets were secretly sold or transferred despite the restrictions.
The next hearing on November 26 is expected to examine the detailed reports from the state government, the court-appointed committee and the ED. Those reports will determine the extent of the alleged transfers and the status of properties that remain to be secured.
