CUTTACK: A special court here designated under the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 2011 on Wednesday ordered a public auction of the property of Artha Tatwa (AT) Group for distribution among investors allegedly duped by the Ponzi company.
Earlier, an order for the attachment of properties of AT Group, a major player in the Ponzi scam in the state was issued by the state Finance department on February 8, 2014. Later in pursuance of a communication received from the department, the additional district magistrate, Cuttack (the competent authority under the OPID Act) filed a petition before the designated special court for order to sell the attached property by public auction on March 16, 2014. Subsequently, Subrata Mohanty presented the case as a special public prosecutor in the case with 147 exhibits.
While allowing the petition, the presiding judge of the Special OPID court, Gyanaranjan Pattnaik approved the order of attachment and directed the competent authority (ADM, Cuttack) to sell the attached property (including land and cash) by public auction and release the sale proceeds, realise the amount in the bank accounts for equitable distribution among the depositors.
Among AT Group’s attached properties are 11 cars, 110-acre land in Angul, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, and Ganjam and 2.17 crore deposits in accounts in nine banks. This is the 27th case in which the OPID court in Cuttack has given orders for the public auction of the property of Ponzi companies.