To rein in dubious chit fund companies, the Assam government on Monday notified a legislation that provides for jail up to 10 years for any person found guilty of frauds related to deposits and repayments by financial companies.
Called the Assam Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) (Amendment) Act 2013, it provides for fine up to Rs 5 lakh with powers to attach properties and money of guilty financial companies.
These provisions will also apply to individual promoters, managers and other members of such companies, the Act stated. The Act not only allows deputy commissioners and SP (economic offences) to receive complaints from depositors and initiate probe but also empowers them to take suo moto action.
Meanwhile, Assam Police have filed eight cases against Saradha Group, whose CMD Sudipta Sen was arrested by the West Bengal Police on April 23 for defrauding public.
Sen, currently in custody of West Bengal Police, had alleged that a minister in Tarun Gogoi government, Himanta Biswa Sarma, had taken at least Rs 3.5 crore from him over the last 18 months. Sarma has filed a defamation and a criminal case against Sen.
The police have also frozen 106 bank accounts, involving more than Rs 25 crore, of various chit funds companies, in addition to Rs 95 lakh seized as several offices offinancial firms have been sealed, an official said.
Russians refuse food to protest their arrest
Guwahati: Three Russian nationals, arrested from a hotel in Guwahati last week on charges of duping public through a web-based chit fund scheme, have declined to eat solid food inside the central jail here demanding their release.
Danis Rosaov, Alexei Muratov and Andre Kilyn along with three Indian accomplices Rimish Balan, Dinesh Kotian and Nabajit Das are now in judicial custody and were operating an online scheme called Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox India.
Police said the Russians ate food they gave on the first day. But later on they refused to take any solid food except fruit juice and water. "We bought them sandwiches and burgers, but they refused to eat," said an officer.
