Chit Funds-Plantation Firms Illegal Links Unearthed

The Kolkata Police today said that it has unearthed siphoning out of investments by chit funds into a handful of plantation companies. The chit funds had attracted public deposits by posing as share traders.

This was announced today by the public prosecutor at the hearing of the arrested officials and owners of chit funds and plantations companies before the Bankshall Court. The court ordered that the 12 arrested employees and owners of the chit funds be remanded to jail while four representatives of plantation companies were to be held in police custody. All the arrested persons would be produced before the court after 14 days.

 

With close links between chit funds and plantations companies brought into light, the amount involved in the scam is likely to increase manifold. It was assumed initially that the chit funds robbed investors of Rs 150 crore.

The top police officials, however, did not want to hazard a guess on the amount involved in the scam. "The picture will be clear within a couple of days as we are expecting a breakthrough in the case," said an official.

The police today produced officials and owners of chit funds including Indian Securities, Invesco Securities, Concept Securities, Zed Securities, Sai Securities and Laxmi Share Consultancy.

Officials of several plantations companies -- namely Fortuna Agro Plantation, Rainbow Greenfield and Green Age Agrotech -- were also produced before the court.

In a separate development, five individuals, claiming to be investors in Indian Securities, moved the Human Rights Commission against "unlawful action" taken by the state government and the Kolkata Police commissioner "with illegal arrest" of Indian Securities' owner A K Gupta.

The petitioners, on behalf of the Indian Security Share Trading Investor's Forum, claimed that they had appointed Gupta as a fund manager to carry on share trading on their behalf.

The Kolkata Police arrested Gupta on December 3 for his alleged connection with the chit fund kingpin Sanjib Kapur. The Bankshall Court today ordered to shift Gupta, who was remanded in police custody till the arrest, to jail custody.