The Justice RK Patra Commission of Enquiry probing the chit fund fraudulent activities in the State got another six months’ extension of its tenure to complete its probe. Set up in July this year, the panel was asked to submit its report in three months.
On October 18, the Commission had written a letter to the State Home Ministry, seeking an extension of its term and had also urged the State Government to appoint a panel of at least three lawyers to assist it in carrying out the work as the number of petitions it received went up to several lakhs.
Following massive public outcry, the State Government had appointed the Commission headed by former Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court Justice RK Patra and asked it to identify individuals and entities indulged in unauthorised collection of public deposits and find outinvolvement of influential persons in protecting and promoting suchillegal activities in the State.
The Commission had to extend its deadline to receive complaints fromgeneral public time and again as number of people seeking to submittheir statement of affidavits kept rising up. While the Commission hasreceived over seven lakh packets of affidavits, the number ofaffidavits may touch a record ten lakh, sources said, adding that mostof the packets contain multiple affidavits.