CBI files charge-sheet in Rs 245-crore chit fund case

Guwahati: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the Additional CJM's court, Kamrup (M) against nine office-bearers of the Jeevan Suraksha chit fund group, including its then chairman, GM, MD and director.

The accused persons had opened offices in Nagaland and at Nagaon and defrauded an amount of around Rs 245 crore from numerous depositors through the 'Jeevan Suraksha Real Estate Limited', 'Jeevan Suraksha Associates Marketing Limited', 'Jeevan Suraksha Energy & Industries Limited' and 'Jeevan Suraksha Trading & Financial Limited'.

The Assam Police had filed the initial charge-sheet against these chit fund companies in 2013. Subsequently, the CBI took over the case in accordance with a directive of the Supreme Court and registered a case on December 24, 2015 against the group of companies. The CBI had filed the initial charge-sheet on March 25, 2019.

Today's supplementary charge-sheet has been filed against the then MD Chandan Das, then chairman Uttam Acharjee, then GM Ashok Chakraborty, then director Sangita Das and five others.

During its investigation, the CBI found that "the accused persons conspired amongst themselves with the intention to cheat, (and) established the group of companies. The accused collected huge public funds in the form of deposits by issuing certificates to a huge number of investors in violation of the Companies Act and SEBI regulations."

It was also found during the investigation that the accused persons had allegedly diverted Rs 81.65 lakh from the fund-raising company to the non-functional company. The charge-sheet stated that the accused persons ultimately misappropriated an amount of Rs 245 crore deposited by the investors, thereby cheating the investors.

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