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Bhubaneswar, Jan 28: The death of Justice Radha Krushna Patra, who was probing chit fund scam to indentify investors, has left thousands of duped investors in uncertainty.
The state government in 2013 announced creation of a corpus fund of `300 crore to help investors get back their hard earned money and constituted Justice RK Patra Commission to receive the affidavits from the victims. The one-man commission suggested preparation of an online data-base of the victims to process the claims. Accordingly, the government decided to initiate digitisation of all claims and assigned Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) to hire firms and prepare a database of the depositors.
In the first phase, 2,10,000 claims would be scanned and digitised to segregate small and large investors. People who had invested less than `10,000 in a ponzi scheme are classified as small investors and will get priority in refund of money. The commission has received over 10 lakh affidavits and prepared a database of six lakh affidavits. The OCAC has started digitisation of the database. While the verification of affidavits is under way, over 2.5 lakh sealed affidavits are yet to be opened.
Meanwhile, the death of Justice Patra has raised questions on the future of the commission. While duped investors are still in panic, legal experts opine that the process to identify investors will be delayed as the government has to appoint another person to head the commission. State Advocate General SP Mishra said, “The identification process would have been faster had Justice Patra been alive. Hope, the process does not get delayed.”
When contacted, Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat said, “The government will reconstitute the commission soon.” “We will meet in this regard and discuss the progress of Patra Commission before taking a decision.”
Amat, however, assured that digitisation and database process will continue and the government will do its best to refund investors’ money.
