CBI court sentences SAFEX director to 3 yrs RI in chitfund scam

A designated CBI Court here has convicted Firoz Khan, a former director in the Safex Group of Companies, in a chitfund scam case and sentenced him to three years rigorous imprisonment.

The court also convicted Safex Infra India Limited represented by Khan and directed the company to pay compensation of Rs 12 crore which shall be paid to the unpaid depositors after realisation as per law, a CBI release said here today.

Under the scam, investors in Odisha were cheated of crores of rupees.

The conviction and the order was passed by the court on Monday.

The investing agency had registered the case against Safex Group on June 5, 2014 in compliance of the orders of the Supreme Court of May 9, 2014 in a case of 2013 against the company, the release said.

The CBI took over the investigation of the case from the crime branch of Odisha Police. The crime branch had registered a case against Safex on September 12, 2012.

It was alleged that the accused persons collected Rs 9,36,24,500 illegally from investors under different schemes from December 2010 to August 2012 but returned only Rs 45,23,346 to them. The rest of the money was misappropriated in a conspiracy by the accused, an official statement said.

The CBI had filed the charge sheet on September 3, 2015 under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) and Sections of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 against Firoz Khan, along with eight others and Safex Infra India Ltd in the designated CBI court.

Khan was named in the charge sheet as an absconder. He was subsequently arrested on March 20, 2016 and is now in judicial custody.

The trial court found the accused guilty and convicted them, the released said.