Post News Network
Cuttack, May 18: A designated court here Monday directed the state government to auction the attached properties of M/S Safex Infra India, a chit fund company operating from Berhampur and distribute the proceeds to investors equitably.
The court ordered confiscation and sale of the seized properties of the ponzi firm, which include 15 acres of land and bank deposits worth Rs 5 lakh, after upholding the state attachment of the assets ‘absolute’.
The Economic Offences Wing of State Crime Branch January 18 sought permission of the Finance department to liquidate the assets of the company to facilitate refund of money to investors as per the Orissa Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011.
In September 2012, the CB had raided the company’s offices at Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Bhubaneswar after allegations fraud to the extent of Rs 10 crore came to the fore.
Six senior company officials were arrested, important documents seized and bank accounts of the company frozen. CB officials had seized 15 acre land possessed by the company, besides its bank deposits worth 5 lakh.
The state government had seized eight acre land owned by the company September 27 last year.
Revenue officials, during a survey identified eight acre land of the ponzi firm in Rajpur Mouza and Bada Kharida Mouza in the name of Amlina Khan, director of Safex India. Later, the officials handed over the land and records to Purusottam tehsil.
Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during its investigation into AT Group fraud had found Khan had close links with the Ponzi firm and that the land was bought with the AT Group’s money. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI conducted simultaneous raids at 14 places, including Bhubaneswar and Ganjam January 13, on the chit fund company director’s residential premises.
The SIT teams had raided the Safex Infra India offices at Berhamapur and Chhatrapur. The company is among the 44 chit fund companies being probed by the CBI.
