The State Government has no information on the number of chit fund companies that cheated people and the total amount of money cheated away from the investors.
“As the State Government had not given permission to any of the chit fund firms and investigations into chit fund frauds are underway by the Justice MM Das Commission, Economic Offences Wing, district police officers and other investigating agencies, it is not possible on part of the Government to say about on the exact number of chit fund companies that operated in the State and the total amount of money cheated away by them from investors,” Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari informed this in the State Assembly in response to a question of BJD member Soumya Ranjan Patnaik.
The Minister informed that the EoW has filed 675 cases against 268 illegal financial institutions and chargesheets have been filed in 135 cases.
As cases against these financial institutions are underway at different courts, the Government also can’t reveal about the assets seized from them, the Minister added.
In response to another question of Patnaik, the Minister further informed that over 7 lakh affidavits were received by the MM Das Commission following the second notification issued after the first one in 2013. Steps are on to digitise these affidavits. After digitization, the affidavits would be scrutinised.
The investors can be identified only after investigations, being conducted by the commission and different courts, are over, the Minister said.
In response yet another question of Patnaik, the Minster informed that the Government has made no provision to pay compensation to investors who had deposited over Rs 10,000 in chit fund firms. The Government has created a Rs 300-crore corpus fund to pay compensation to small investors to be identified after investigations.