Gudvela: Over a hundred people belonging to Tushra, Gudvela and Deogaon areas in Bolangir district gheraoed the Tushra police station Sunday demanding immediate measures to ensure that they get back the money they deposited with Micro Finance Ltd, a fly-by-night company at Tushra.
They submitted a memorandum to police and staged a road blockade.
The residents withdrew their stir following an assurance given by Tushra officer-in-charge Gokulananda Sahu to look into their demands.
In the memorandum, the agitators mentioned that the fake company had collected crores of rupees from people using its agents to lure people into getting attractive returns. Even though the company’s office at Tushra was closed 18 months back, agents still continued to collect money from people in the name of fixed deposits, recurring deposits and daily deposits.
The company authorities gave heavy sums to agents as commissions and salary. In order to get good commissions, agents even included their relatives in several schemes to get huge profits in chain system.
Agents appointed in the company did not require any qualification. They were only required to be able to motivate people to deposit money in several bogus schemes of the firm, the memorandum added.
While the chit-fund scam rocked the whole state, the company managed to stay afloat by returning deposits to some of the beneficiaries with interests and thus owned the trust of gullible people. This inspired people to deposit more money with it.
When villagers sought their money back, agents threatened them to face dire consequences, the memorandum said.
The depositors demanded that the agents be arrested and their money returned to them.
They warned of taking the law into their hands and immolate themselves if the administration fails to take immediate measures to return their money.
Ajay Jaiswal, Anil Sharma, Pradyumna Mohapatra, Jagadish Sahu, Manoj Kedia, Padam Kedia and Shambhu Taria led the agitation.
PNN