THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The victims of the BSNL Engineers Co-operative Society scam have alleged that the state-appointed regulator has failed to file a complaint against the chargesheet submitted by the crime branch. Rajesh Kartha, additional registrar of the Cooperative Department, was appointed as the government regulator in the case relating to the swindling of Rs 260 crore worth of depositors’ money.
The inaction led the BUDS court to reject their petition, citing that Sections 3 and 5 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act cannot be invoked against the BSNL Cooperative Society since it is registered under the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act and falls under a regulated deposit scheme.
To bring the case under the purview of the BUDS Act, Section 4 which prohibits deposit takers from committing fraudulent defaults when accepting deposits needs to be included. However, the regulator has yet to make this addition. The victims plan to appeal to the High Court against what they describe as foul play. “If the case is not handled by the BUDS court, it could take years in a sessions court,” said a victim who wished to remain anonymous.
The government had initiated the move to reclaim properties from the culprits by invoking the BUDS Act. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Economic Offences Wing, had filed the final report for the offences punishable under Sections 3 and 5 of the BUDS Act, as well as for other offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, before the court.
Section 3 of the BUDS Act bans unregulated deposit schemes, while Section 5 deals with wrongful inducement in relation to unregulated deposit schemes. However, since the BSNL Engineers Cooperative Society is a regulated deposit scheme under the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, it cannot be treated as an unregulated deposit scheme.
Therefore, the court ordered the final reports to be returned to file before the jurisdictional magistrate courts so that they could be forwarded to the concerned magistrate court.