BENGALURU: There is a sliver of hope for the nearly 23,000 victims across Karnataka, who were duped in the Kanva scam, with Cooperation Minister S T Somashekhar now agreeing to their long-pending demand to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI). An organisation representing the victims met the minister at his residence on Saturday and reiterated its request to move it from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
The victims deposited lakhs of rupees with the Kanva Souhadra Coop Ltd, with its head office at Basaveshwaranagar and 45 branches spread across Karnataka. An estimated Rs 1,500 crore was deposited with the group since 1995 by the public, in the form of RDs or FDs, with 12 per cent interest or prospects of doubling of deposit in 5.5 years. The perpetrators have been arrested and are out on bail. The Enforcement Directorate and CID investigated the matter and different properties of the owners have been attached under the Money Laundering Act 2002.
Cooperation Minister S T Somashekhar told TNIE, “Following public demand, I have decided to hand over the case to the CBI. I will be discussing the issue with the Chief Minister tomorrow (Monday) and with his consent, it would be placed before the cabinet for its nod.” The same had been done in the case of Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank Niyamitha scam and Sri Vasishta Souharda Bank scam, and we intend to follow the same here, he added.
The administrator of Kanva Scam Claimants’ Welfare Forum Muralidhar Lakkanna told this reporter, “Since November 2019, we have been keen on a CBI probe into it. We are relieved that our demand is finally being accepted. We were not happy with the CID probe as it has been able to identify just 40% of the money we have deposited so far. What happens to the rest of our money?”
The scam came to the fore when a few individuals wanted their promised sum after maturity in October 2019, but those running Kanva did not have the money, revealed one of the victims, requesting anonymity. Three of them filed an FIR, following which MD and chairman N Nanjundaiah were arrested on November 1 and released a few days later.
A total of 254 properties worth Rs 316 crore were seized from across the state and would be auctioned to compensate the victims. The Kanva cooperative had diverted all deposits into their ventures like Kanva Fashions, Kanva Educational Institutions, Kanva Food Products and so on, Gopalakrishna Reddy, who is spearheading the battle on behalf of the depositors, had told TNIE earlier that the victims were waiting in a queue at Shanti Nagar Revenue office to hand over documents to prove their deposits.