Chit fund commission to start hearing from Sept 6

The RK Patra commission of inquiry has decided to conduct first public hearing on September 6 about grievances of the depositors duped by chit fund companies.

The commission will publish notification inviting affidavits and grievances within 2-3 days. The people are open to send their views, documents and grievances regarding their deposits after the notification by post or in person. I have fixed September 6 as first date of hearing," said Patra, retired chief justice of Sikkim High Court and former chairman of Odisha Human Right Commission. The office of the commission, which works from police headquarter in Cuttack, was constituted on July 9 to look into chit fund fraud cases.

As per the government estimates, 650,000 people have been duped to the tune of Rs 4,375 crore between January, 2012 and June, 2013, by the chit fund companies operating in the state. The state police and crime branch have taken action against 127 firms, filed 280 cases and arrested more than 300 persons for involvement in the scam. The companies against whom the cases are registered include Seashore group, Arthatatwa, Rose Valley, etc.

The state government has already announced a corpus fund of Rs 300 crore to give relief to small investors who have lost their money in the scam. The government has confiscated the properties of the companies and plans to return depositors' money by auctioning the properties.

Besides, the state government has directed opening of grievance cells in the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP) in every district. SPs have been asked to meet the complainants on daily basis. For speedy trial of the chit fund related cases, the state government will approach the High Court for constitution of special courts. It may be noted that the Odisha High Court has earlier declined to nominate a sitting judge to head the judicial inquiry ordered into the fraudulent activities of deposit collection companies.