Chit fund scam: FIRs against Abhishek Singh in Rajnandgaon

Five FIRs have been registered in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh against former chief minister Raman Singh's son Abhishek Singh, a former MP, and 19 others in connection with an alleged chit fund scam on Thursday, police said.

Former BJP MP Madhusudan Yadav and Congress leader Naresh Dakaliya have also been named as accused besides 17 directors and core committee members of Anmol India Company.

The first information reports were registered at four police stations on the directive of a local court, Rajnandgaon Additional Superintendent of Police UBS Chouhan said.

Nobody has been arrested so far, he added.

Two cases were registered at Khairagarh police station and one each at Chikhli police outpost, Ambagarh Chowki police station and Lalbagh police station under IPC section 420 (cheating) and Protection of Interest of Depositors of Chhattisgarh Act, 2005 and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation (Banning) Act, the ASP said.

Another police official said that Abhishek Singh, Yadav and Dakaliya allegedly did publicity for the company which wooed investors across the state before shutting shop in 2016.

Five investors from Rajnandgaon recently filed petitions before a local court, alleging that the company cheated them of lakhs of rupees by promising high returns.

The court directed that FIRs be registered and the matter should be investigated.

As per the two FIRs lodged in Khairagarh police station, Sriram Verma and Shiv Kumar Sahu have alleged that the company embezzled Rs 1.18 lakh and 1.12 lakh which they had respectively deposited.

The company had promised to double their money within a few months but investors allegedly did not get any returns, the official said.

Earlier, four cases had been registered against Singh, Yadav and 18 others in Surguja district in the same matter.

When contacted, Abhishek Singh said the "cases seem to be part of a (malafide) strategy" and "fair probe" will reveal the truth.

After a similar case was lodged against Singh in Ambikapur, he approached Chhattisgarh High Court seeking to quash the FIR, his lawyer Vivek Sharma said.

The high court stayed the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act but allowed that under other acts.

Singh then moved the Supreme Court which ordered the state government not to take coercive steps against him in the case registered at Ambikapur, the lawyer said.