The Jharkhand High Court on Friday, while hearing a Public Interest litigation (PIl) filed by eight different parties in Chit Fund Scam, directed the State Government to hand over all 213 cases to the CBI, which are currently pending in various police stations in the State. Earlier, the division bench of Chief Justice PK Mohanty and Justice Ananda Sen had asked the State to file depicting how many such cases were pending in the State.
“After the State submitted the list of 213 cases pending in various police stations in State, the court directed it to hand over all those cases to the CBI within four weeks,” said petitioner’s advocate Rajiv Kumar. The PIl filed by Jharkhand Abhikarta Sangh, Tribhuvan Agro Project limited, Ganesh Pandey, Real Vision International limited, Khudi Ram Mahto and N Mart was clubbed together, he added.
The Jharkhand Abhiarta Sangh in its petition has said that the Chit Fund Companies using them as medium, duped thousands of people all over the State for which they were being targeted. The Sangh demanded that those Chit Fund Companies should return the money taken by the innocent investors and at the same time the cases should be handed over to the CBI.
“As many as 40 Chit Fund Companies have been found to be involved in duping the people amounting in crores of Rupees,” said Kumar. Earlier in the year 2013-14 also, the court had ordered to hand over all the pending cases to the CBI but, was not done completely by the State till date, he added.
“Today the final order was issued to the State to hand over all 213 cases to the CBI,” said Kumar. As many as 12 cases have already been handed over the CBI, he added.
Earlier, the Jharkhand High Court had ordered CBI inquiry against 27 companies on May 11, 2015 while disposing of the PIl filed by Bablu Kumar, Sanjay lakra and Ajay Kumar, initiated on the basis of a letter sent by the Deoghar District Bar Association to the high court in February 2014.
The advocates’ body complaint, lodged with the then Deoghar Deputy Commissioner and Sub-Divisional Officer, also revealed that at least 27 such firms were operative in Deoghar district alone. later, a PIl was also filed in this regard by Jharkhand against Corruption demanding a CBI probe in the matter.
The letter also stated that those companies were quite active and their employees mingle with common people and convince them to invest money in such firms, who promise sure dividends and high rates of interest to lure the investors.
later, a case, clubbing 25 different complaints, against AIRl and 16 others were lodged at Deoghar Town Police Station (543/2013) in September 2013.