COIMBATORE: The Economic Offences Wing police, Salem district, spent a whopping Rs 14 lakh on 33 sets of 50,000-page chargesheet in the ponzi scheme scam case. The chargesheet copies (15 lakh pages) were given to 29 suspects at the special court for TNPID (Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors) Act in Coimbatore on Thursday. The hearing was posted for October 9 as one of the suspects failed to receive it.
In 2017, Salem EOW police arrested R Sivakumar (57) who ran Winstar India City Developers and allegedly cheated 1,686 investors of around Rs 74 crore by offering ponzi investment schemes. Police arrested 29 suspects in connection with the case and all of them came out on bail. The case is under trial at special court in Coimbatore.
In 2019, a chargesheet was filed which ran into 50,000 pages before the court. Police obtained Rs 14 lakh from the government for printing 33 copies of it for 29 suspects, court, public prosecutor and police. Copies were made at the cost of 85 paise per print, sources said.
“We have received around more 300 complaints and expect the number of complaints to go beyond 2,500 and the amount involved for making charge sheets is expected to cross Rs 200 crore. We are working to attach the properties of the company,” said a police officer.
When asked if it was okay to spend so much money and paper for preparing chargesheet in a single case, legal experts said it was unavoidable as so many people were involved. “Digital chargesheets would create practical difficulties because everyone must have access to electronic devices,” said A Pandiaraj, a senior advocate. He added a few years ago, the same court denied permission to produce documents on a pen drive because the police were overloaded.