Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 20: In a landmark verdict in the multi-crore chit fund scam, two officials of a ponzi firm were convicted and sentenced to undergo jail terms by chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court here Wednesday.
Binayak Mishra (53), president of chit fund company, Maa Mangala Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd (MMSCCL), and cashier Geetanjali Panigrahi (45) were found guilty of cheating investors, conspiring to dupe them and breaching investors’ trust.
While Mishra will undergo five years of imprisonment and pay `1,00,000 as fine, Panigrahi will serve a jail sentence of three years and pay a penalty of `50,000.
Mishra along with eight others had launched the company in 2003 by opening its office at Baramunda Housing Colony. Panigrahi was then a board member. The company offered several investment schemes such as daily deposits, fixed deposits and recurring deposits and promised the investors high returns.
However, about 34 investors had lodged complaints with Khandagiri police in August 2013 after the company closed its business in March 2013. None of the depositors had got returns on their money. Some of them had received fake cheques from the company.
The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch had raided MSSCCL’s office in 2013 and seized at least 45 bonds of investors.
Around 20 investors were examined by the prosecution who told the court about their investments varying from Rs 50,000 to President Rs 3 lakh. Among the witnesses, a company’s agent Ramakant Muduli also deposed before the court and said he himself had invested around `2 lakh in the company.
MMSSCL was neither found registered with the Registrar of Companies nor with Registrar of Cooperative Societies. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had also replied to EOW in December 2015 that the MMSSCL was not registered with it to run any non-banking financial institution.
Judge PM Samal observed while writing the judgment: “Accused person not only cheated and exploited investors with pecuniary loss but also cast serious repercussion on the society at large.”
Panigrahi’s counsel Nirupama Mohant argued that her client had resigned from the post of cashier in 2011. The argument saved her from being charged under Section 409 of IPC.