THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The special investigation team of the Crime Branch probing the Nirmal chit fund fraud case has collected the written statements and copies of bank passbooks from nearly 2,500 investors who were duped.
The team, led by Crime Branch Economic Offences Wing DySP Anilkumar, collected the documents at the PWD Rest House at Parassala.
A serpentine queue of investors was present in front of the rest house since 7 am, with the rush even disrupting traffic on the Parassala-Karakonam stretch. The Crime Branch team arrived around 11 am and started collecting the statements of investors. Action council representatives were also present.
While the investigating team had earlier decided to collect statements only from 50 investors, they had to collect statements from around 2,500 investors based on their repeated requests. Sources said the investigating team had told investors they will file a report with the government on the grievances voiced.
However, the investigating team said they have not decided on registering an FIR as the case is being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing of the Tamil Nadu Police. And the action council is firm about ‘laying siege’ to the national highway at Parassala junction on Wednesday alleging the apathy shown by Kerala Police.
But an officer said the Kerala Police would extend all support to the Tamil Nadu Police in the investigation and the collective probe would yield positive results. “The allegations raised by investors are not correct,” said a top officer. “We are giving all support to Tamil Nadu to trace the absconders. Since the finance firm is not located in our jurisdiction, we can only provide support to the investigation agencies concerned. However, we are looking into the case very seriously.”
The Tamil Nadu Police have started collecting more details about the firm which has several benami branches at Perumkadavila near Neyyattinkara and at Kunnathukal. They received vital information about the firm from the statements of arrested staffers.
Nirmal Krishna Chit Fund company, a finance firm which functioned in Palukal in Tamil Nadu, close to the Kerala border, had allegedly duped over 13,600 investors from both states who had deposited over Rs 500 crore under various investment schemes on the promise of good returns. Among them were several people hailing from Parassala, Vellarada and Kunnathukal areas, bordering Tamil Nadu. The cheating came to light when the office failed to reopen after the Onam break.
The firm had registered the mortgaged properties in the names of arrested persons. The police said around 16 people, including the key accused, were absconding.
The firm had collected deposits to the tune of several crores from various persons, including businessmen and politicians in Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram. It used to offer returns at the rate of Rs 1,400 per month for a deposit of Rs 1 lakh. Nirmal Krishna Nidhi Ltd would prompt investors to convert monthly payments from the deposit as chit payment so the amount could be retained by the firm.