THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Tamil Nadu economic offences wing probing the Nirmal Krishna chit fund fraud case has recorded statements from 1,164 investors from Tamil Nadu and 175 from Kerala. Investigators said the investors have lost around C96 crore after having invested in the firm.
The details of investors were revealed in a high-level meeting between the top police officers from the two states in Chennai on Tuesday. A special squad of the TN economic offences wing comprising 15 members has already been formed to trace the culprits who had gone absconding after closing down the firm. A similar team from Kerala Police is providing assistance to TN team.
According to a statement from the state police, the investigation team has confiscated C39.81 lakh in cash, seven kg of gold, 12 trucks and a car. The team has also frozen the investment of C47 lakh of the company and began efforts to seize around 220 acres of land belonging to the company. The collection of benami details of the company is in progress.
Prior to the Chennai meeting, State Police Chief Loknath Behera had written to his TN counterpart to complete the probe as early as possible as a major chunk of investors are from Kerala. IGP (crimes) S Sreejith and S P Prasanthan Kani attended the meeting representing the state while economic offences wing ADGP Sunil Kumar Singh and I G Ajith Kumar Das represented Tamil Nadu.
So far, five persons have been arrested and 13 persons, including the key accused Nirmalan Krishnan Nair, are still at large. Nirmal Krishna Chit Fund Company, a finance firm which functioned in Palukal in Tamil Nadu close to the Kerala border, had allegedly duped over 13,600 investors who had deposited over C500 crore under various investment schemes on the promise of good returns. Among them were several people hailing from Parassala, Vellarada and Kunnathukal areas bordering TN. The cheating came to light after the office failed to reopen after the Onam break.
The firm had registered the mortgaged properties in the names of the arrested persons. The police said around 16 people went absconding, including the key accused. The firm had collected deposits to the tune of several crores from various persons, including businessmen and politicians, in Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram districts. The company is said to have a strong presence in areas like the Chalai market here. It used to offer returns at the rate of C1,400 per month for a deposit of C1 lakh. Nirmal Krishna Nidhi Ltd also used to prompt investors to convert the monthly payment from the deposit as chit payment so the amount could be retained by the firm.