New chit fund probe panel assumes charge

Retired judge of Orissa High Court Justice M M Das today took charge of Judicial Commission probing into the multi-crore chit fund scam in the state.
Justice Das was appointed as the Commission on Wednesday following the death of Justice R K Patra, who was heading the one-man panel since July 2013.
Speaking to a local TV channel soon after assuming charge, Justice Das said he would expedite the enquiry as per the present terms of reference of the Commission.
Besides identifying the individuals and entities indulged in unauthorised collection of public deposits, the Commission is asked to probe and bring out involvement of influential persons in the society protecting promoting such illegal activities in the State.

On refund of investors' money, Justice Das clarified that on receipt of any specific reference about it by the State government he would definitely work sincerely towards working out modalities for return of poor investor's money.
"If the government so desires by making a specific reference, the small investors could be identified by segregating the database and the list would be provided to the government in an interim report", he said.
Legal experts here are of the opinion that the State government could amend the earlier terms of reference of the Commission and modify it to suit the purpose. State law minister Arun Sahu has recently indicated that the government is planning to modify the terms of reference so as to facilitate early return of investors' money.

It may be mentioned here that the Commission has received as many as ten lakh affidavits, of which only six lakh have been scrutinised till date and the process of digitalisation of the same are on.