Tripura government asked to form SIT to probe chit fund firms

The Tripura High Court on Thursday asked the state government to set up a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe the activities of illegal Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and chit fund organisations.

"The High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Utpalendu Bikash Saha, acting on a PIL, directed the chief secretary and director general of police (DGP) to constitute an SIT to inquire into the unauthorised activities of the unlawful NBFCs and chit fund organisations," lawyer Arun Kanti Bhowmik told reporters.

Bhowmik, who appeared on behalf of the petitioners, said the court also asked the chief secretary and the DGP to inform it by April 9 about the status of the proposed SIT.

The Public Interest Litigation was filed by a section of depositors of Response Group, a chit fund company, in June 2013, seeking direction from the court to seal the movable and immovable properties of the company and to release their deposits.

The state government in 2013 referred 37 cases relating to chit fund companies and NBFCs to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The agency, however, has taken up only five cases.

CBI officials on March 4 raided seven Tripura offices of Kolkata-based Rose Valley Group, another chit fund company, and seized many documents.

Unauthorised chit fund companies and NBFCs have mushroomed in the northeastern region in recent years.

They lure depositors by promising exceptionally hefty rates of interest ranging from 25 percent to 30 percent. After collecting the money, they quietly end their operations and vanish.