The Supreme Court on Tuesday while hearing a public interest litigation (PIl) filed by Aam Aadmi Party member Alok Jena felt it necessary to hand over the investigation of the chit fund scam in State to the CBI.
Despite resistance of State Government lawyer Gopal Subramanium, a bench of Justices TS Thakur and C Nagappan said that in order to instill confidence in the public mind and considering the huge magnitude of the offence, it is necessary that an impartial investigation is launched.
Earlier, petitioner’s counsel Suresh Tripathy questioned the bona fides of the present investigation undertaken by the State Crime Branch and submitted that in view of 20 lakh families having been affected and Rs 50,000 crore having been looted, it was imperative that an investigation by the CBI was directed.
He argued that powerful people, including Ministers, are involved in the scam and the present investigation has done little to unearth the mega scam. Tripathy further argued that the entire investigation was tainted and unfair.
After hearing the parties, the court directed counsel Tripathy to prepare a list of the chit fund operators to enable the court to direct CBI to investigate the cases. The next hearing on the issue was fixed for January 28.