After
the Saradha group financial fraud cases in West Bengal, Odisha is hit by scam.
When
school teacher Basudev Mohapatra retired in 2012, he invested most of his
retirement benefits, which amounted to Rs 7 lakh, with the Seashore Group that
promised him a whopping 24 per cent interest annually for 6 years before
returning his money. After a few months the interest payments stopped. The
company even refused to return the invested amount. Basudev realised he had
been duped.
“The
company and its agent convinced us that if you keep your money in banks you
will get only 8 per cent interest, but if you deposit in Seashore you will get
24 per cent. Since the company was running for the past several years in our
area, we thought the government must have given it due permission to operate,”
Mohapatra said.
Basudev
is not alone. It is ascertained that nearly 7 lakh investors in Odisha are
duped of about 20,000 crores of rupees by various operators. At least three
dozens of such companies including Saradha group, Seashore group, AT group,
Rose Valley group, Flourish India, Micro Finance group are operating in Odisha.
At least
177 people were arrested in different parts of Odisha the past week for their
involvement in illegal money circulation and chit fund activities.
The
crackdown on these firms began on May 10 and about 200 offices of 84 companies
were raided, says Rajesh Kumar, deputy inspector general (economic offence
wing) of the crime branch police. During the raids, police recovered
incriminating documents pertaining to various chit fund activities in the state
involving illegal circulation of money. Hundreds of accounts were seized and
offices sealed.
Sources
in the crime branch reveal that Seashore Group has duped over 80,000 investors
and collected over Rs 600 crore. Seashore Chairman Prasant Dash was arrested
and is now out on bail.
The
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lists 17 non-banking financial companies registered
in Odisha and none are permitted to raise deposits from investors. But
fraudulent companies attract depositors by posing as mutual fund firms and even
as real estate businesses.
With
regulatory bodies like the RBI, SEBI, the state finance department and the
state police failing to act together, the fraudsters get away with hundreds of
crores. “Multiple regulators and regulatory gap is perhaps giving opportunity
to such fraudulent financial establishments to dupe investors.” said Jugal
Kishore Mohapatra, Finance Secretary.
Courtesy:
Sunday,
May 19, 2013, 8:21 IST | Place: Bhubaneswar | Agency: DNA
Debendra
Prusty
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1836637/report-chit-fund-scam-dupes-7-lakh-in-odisha
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