The Jharkhand High Court, while hearing a Public Interest litigation filed by Jharkhand against Corruption on Monday, ordered a CBI probe into the flourishing chit fund companies in the State. The court has also directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) department to provide assistance in this regard. State Police, filing an affidavit in the court earlier, had expressed their inability to investigate the case suggesting a CBI probe in this regard.
As many as 27 chit fund companies, under the CBI scanner, reportedly duped investors money to the extent of Rs25,000 crore.
“The court has ordered for a CBI inquiry against 27 chit fund companies and has also asked the ED and IT to cooperate in this regard,” said petitioner’s advocate Rajeev Kumar. According to Kumar, those 27 companies together have duped over Rs 25,000 crore from the people of Jharkhand against which the district police had also written to their senior officers seeking financial inquiry by expert agencies, added Kumar.
Earlier, the Jharkhand High Court on November 18 last year, issuing notices to the Income Tax department, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Enforcement Directorate as well as the Director General of Police and State Finance Secretary had asked why the case should not be handed over to the CBI.
According to Kumar, three cases were filed in this regard — by Bablu Kumar, Sanjay lakra and Ajay Kumar, alleging the chit fund companies of cheating a large number of people through a network of agents working for them all over the State.
A PIl, according to Kumar, was initiated on the basis of a letter sent by the Deoghar District Bar Association to the high court in February 2014.
The advocates’ body’s 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.
The court had pulled up the state government also for allowing the chit fund companies to flourish in the State seeking a report from the then DGP Rajiv Kumar and Chief Secretary RS Sharma on the actions taken against such companies by the State Government.
In 2013, when the Saradha scam surfaced in West Bengal, Department of Institutional Finance in Jharkhand started monitoring 28 chit fund companies, including Alchemist Infra Realty ltd, which had earned a dubious tag from SEBI and subsequently bared a scam worth Rs1,000 crore. Rose Valley and Saradha Realty India limited were two other notables. The state banned all the three at different times in the same year.
later, a case, clubbing 25 different complaints, against AIRl and 16 others were lodged at Deoghar Town Police Station (543/2013) in September 2013.
Gauging the seriousness of the issue, Chief Minister Raghubar Das on the other hand, had also promised recommendation of a CBI inquiry against the chit fund companies operating in the state recently while replying a question raised by MCC MlA Arup Chatterjee over the issue.