BHUBANESWAR: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), an agency under Ministry of Corporate Affairs, will interrogate five top executives of Artha Tatwa Group of Companies, a major chit fund firm that operated in the State.
The Special CBI court has allowed the SFIO to interrogate AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy and four directors including Jyotiprakash Jayprakash, Srikrushna Padhy, Manoj Pattnaik and Mumbai-based stock broker Deepak Parekh.
The SFIO had on January 5 filed a petition before the CBI court seeking permission to record the statement of the accused. The court heard the matter on January 9 and 13 and passed the order allowing the agency to interrogate and record the statement of the five.
Central Government counsel for SFIO Gyanalok Mohanty told this paper that AT Group and its sister concerns had been registered under Companies Act. However, these firms are accused of violating the Memorandum of Article and perpetrated serious fraud following which the Registrar of Companies lodged cases against them under Section 2(12) of the Companies Act.
‘’The SFIO would probe the company fraud committed by the five executives of the Artha Tatwa Group,’’ Mohanty said.
A six-member team, comprising Assistant Director and Joint Director-ranked officers, will record the statements of the five accused in the custody of the CBI.
Late last year, the Enforcement Directorate had attached assets worth `23 crore belonging to the AT Group. The company is accused of duping about Rs 1,200 crores from thousands of investors.
In fact, SFIO is not investigating AT Group only. Major chit firms like Rose Valley, Saradha Group and Seashore Group are under different stages of the probe by the fraud investigation agency.
According to a reply given by Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha last year, 164 companies, multi-level marketing and chit fund companies have been booked for serious fraud by SFIO.
As many as 11 Saradha Group firms, 15 Rose Valley Group companies, 10 Seashore Group firms are being probed by the SFIO.