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CID Additional Director General, N. Sanjay, Registrations and Stamps Department, Inspector General, V. Ramakrishna and CID SP (EOW), Amit Bardar, explaining how the Margadarsi Chit Funds management resorted to irregularities by creating fake subscribers and agents, at a press conference at the A.P. Police Headquarters, at Mangalagiri.
| Photo Credit: G.N. Rao
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh alleged that the Margadarsi Chit Fund Private Limited (MCFPL) has pushed a subscriber into a debt trap by forcing him to join in nearly 90 chits in Vijayawada.
Addressing a press conference on September 7 at the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat at Velagapudi in Guntur district, N. Sanjay, Additional DG of the CID explained that the MCFPL has returned only ₹8,000 to Bondu Annapurna Devi, who paid nearly ₹7 crore through 45 high value chits.
In addition to that the Company has been demanding her to pay ₹1.7 crore due amount to close these chits and hence she approached the CID and lodged a complaint against the MCFPL, he added.
Mr. Sanjay further explained that initially, the victim joined in a single chit, but due to certain reasons, she started taking more and defaulted. After defaulting the previous chits, she was suggested to take more and more chits to pay for them, he added. Eventually, she was forced to subscribe in many chits on her name, her husband’s and family members’ names and other relatives’ names.
He said that despite knowing that she had defaulted and could not pay money for the new chits, the MCFPL encouraged her to subscribe with the intention that she has some poultry business, that her husband is a veterinary doctor and that they have properties. He said that she also worked as an agent for the MCFPL.
In addition to that, the ADG explained that MCFPL indulged in forging a signature of B. Priyanka, daughter of Annapurna Devi, who is studying abroad. In her absence, the MCFPL executed a chit on her name and completed the transactions in their book adjustment by using the forged signatures.
During the press conference, Ms. Annapurna Devi also said that she lost everything including her ancestral properties in paying the defaulted money to the MCFPL. She said that the MCFPL employees forced her to join in nearly 90 chits only to repay their amounts.
Mr. Sanjay added that the total value of audited 65 chits of her stood at ₹14 crore. Out of them, she paid ₹7 crore in 45 chits, which have a gross value of ₹8 crore. From these 45 chits, after paying about ₹7 crore, she got only ₹8,000 as prize money. From all the 65 chits, she got only ₹48 lakh, he added.
The CID officer alleged that the MCFPL has been using ghost subscribers. In this process, the company has been using the names, Aadhaar numbers and other credentials of the subscribers without their notice and doing all the business with just a book adjustment.
He said that the CID has traced more than 100 such ghost subscribers from the MCFPL and suspected that there would be around 2000 such people. He alleged that the managing director of MCFPL Sailaja Kiron Cherukuri was interacting with the ghost subscribers and requesting them not to cooperate with the investigation officer, which is interfering with the investigation process.
CID writes to IT Department
On the other hand, the CID has requested the Income Tax Department, Government of India to probe into the income sources of the subscribers of high-value chits in Margadarsi. He said that they have identified more than 800 such individuals and institutions, which have been operating more than ₹1 crore in each chit.
He said that for instance, a builder from Vijayawada has been operating about 50 Chits and each one of them is valued at about ₹1 crore. He said that the CID has requested the IT department to inquire into such subscribers.
He said that, in another case related to Jagajjanani Chit Funds Private Ltd (JCFPL), the CID has attached ₹9 crore worth of different properties for their alleged violations of the rules.
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