CUTTACK: Over 3.6 lakh big investors cheated by dubious financial companies, who had filed affidavits before Justice M M Das Commission for compensation, have been apparently left in the lurch with the State Government revising the terms of reference (ToR) of the panel.After Justice Das took charge of the Commission on February 5, 2015 following the death of Justice R K Patra on January 8, 2015, he was assigned the additional job of identifying genuine investors eligible for compensation.
A Home department notification issued on February 20, 2015 had assigned the Justice Das to “identify the bona fide investors affected by the unauthorised financial transaction of fraudulent financial establishments / companies and suggest the modality of payment of compensation, the names of small investors eligible for compensation and the amount of compensation payment from Corpus Fund set up by the Government for the purpose or otherwise”.
Accordingly, the Commission had submitted seven interim reports to the Government by July 12, 2019 recommending 4,97,844 small investors (with deposits of `10,000 or less) eligible for compensation from among the 8.96 lakh affidavits received in the first phase. Subsequently, in September this year, the commission had for the first time started process for identifying big investors (with deposits more than Rs 10,000) who are eligible for compensation.
Official sources said the Commission had enumerated 3,63,582 affidavits of big investors who had named more than 700 financial companies which had allegedly cheated them. In the revised ToR issued by Home department on December 11, the Government expects the Commission of Inquiry to “identify the bona fide small investors affected by the unauthorised financial transaction of fraudulent financial stablishments/companies and suggest the modality of payment of compensation, the names of small investors eligible for compensation and the amount of compensation payment from Corpus Fund set up by the Government for the purpose or otherwise”.
The revised ToR has practically narrowed down the identification process to small investors, leaving no room for continuing with the process of identification of big investors who are eligible for compensation, sources in the commission said. Recommendation of around 34,500 small investors is expected to follow in another interim report. The term of the commission expires on February 4, 2020.