Government extends tenure of panel probing chit fund scam

BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday extended the tenure of the Justice MM Das Commission of Inquiry, probing the multi-crore chit fund scam, by six months. Its term was supposed to end on August 5, home department sources said.
The commission's tenure has been extended more than 10 times since its inception in July 2013.

It has submitted five interim reports to the state government and identified over 2 lakh small investors, who have invested less than Rs 10,000 in various ponzi firms. Initially, the commission was supposed to submit its report within three months from the date of its appointment.

The opposition Congress and BJP have flayed the state government for delaying probe into the chit fund scam and returning money to investors.

Both the opposition parties have alleged that the commission's tenure was extended to mislead people ahead of the assembly elections in April 2019.

Congress leader Taraprasad Bahinipati said the state government has no intention to take stringent action against the culprits in the multi-thousand crore chit fund scam as several BJD leaders are involved in it.

"They want to mislead people by extending the tenure of the inquiry commission multiple times and delaying the probe. What happened to the chief minister's announcement of corpus fund meant to return money of the genuine investors? How many genuine investors have got their money back?," said Bahinipati.

BJP vice-president Samir Mohanty said justice delayed means justice denied. "By extending the tenure multiple times, the state government is cheating the depositors. It is an eyewash for lakhs of depositors in the run up to the polls," said Mohanty.

Refuting opposition charges, finance minister Shashi Bhusan Behera said the state government has already started the process of returning money of the genuine small investors as identified by the inquiry commission.

In July 2013, the state government had constituted a one-man commission headed by Justice R K Patra for verification and return of deposits collected by different chit fund companies and to suggest steps to prevent such scams in the future. Justice M M Das took over the inquiry following death of Justice Patra in January 2015.

The tenure of the commission was extended considering that over 10 lakh people had claimed return of their deposits. The state government has started process of returning money to the small investors in April.