Govt returns Rs 47.07cr to over 1.27L duped chit fund investors
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Bhubaneswar: The state govt has restituted Rs 47.07 crore to 1,27,137 duped chit fund investors in the last one year, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed on Wednesday. In an indirect attack on the previous Naveen Patnaik govt, Majhi said only 2,79,109 victims had received refunds to the tune of Rs 119 crore during 2014-2024.
"After the new govt assumed office in the state, under the direction of chief minister the process for refunding chit fund money has been simplified and decentralised to the district level. This has expedited the refund process, and in the past year, the state govt has returned Rs 47.07 crore to 1,26,137 small depositors," according to a statement from the chief minister's office (CMO).
The CMO indicated that an additional 5 lakh small depositors would receive their refunds within 3 to 4 months.
"For a decade from 2014 to 2024, only 2,79,109 small depositors had received a total refund of Rs 119 crore," the statement noted.
Compensating chit fund victims was a crucial BJP electoral commitment last year. The BJP state president, Manmohan Samal, in Sept last year announced that the govt would reimburse defrauded chit fund victims within 18 months.
About 70 lakh people in Odisha were reportedly deceived by around 450 Ponzi companies.
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Following a Supreme Court directive in May 2014, the CBI investigated 44 companies, including the Kolkata-based Saradha Group and Odisha-based Seashore and Artha Tatwa groups. These firms allegedly collected roughly Rs 4,600 crore from gullible investors in the state.
Prior to the 2014 assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the then-BJD govt set up a judicial commission and created a Rs 300 crore corpus fund to compensate affected small depositors. The commission, led by Justice M M Das, identified a large number of small depositors who lost Rs 10,000 or less. The commission's interim report to the state govt recommended refund for 4,97,844 small investors while identifying over 450 companies responsible for the Ponzi fraud.
Last Dec, Majhi revealed at an event here that he too was a victim of chit fund schemes, stating he couldn't recover his money due to the complicated recovery process.
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