Kolkata, Sep 21 (IANS): The Calcutta High Court on Thursday upheld an earlier order by a single-judge bench directing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged money laundering by a cooperative society in West Bengal's Alipurduar district.

On August 25, the Calcutta High Court's Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench ordered a CBI probe over the allegations against the cash-lending cooperative society in Alipurduar.

The order was based on a petition filed by Kalpana Das Sarkar at the circuit bench, alleging that the cooperative society first collected huge amounts of deposits from investors and then distributed the money as loans to those associated with it.

On September 15, a bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay slammed the West Bengal government and imposed a financial penalty of Rs 50 lakh for not complying with the order of handing over probe papers related to the case to the CBI.

The state government approached the division bench ofJustices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Uday Kumar challenging the order.

However, on Friday, the division bench upheld the order for a CBI probe. However, it reduced the penalty amount to just Rs 5 lakh.

On September 18, the CBI took over the investigation into the case and also registered an FIR under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).