MADURAI: Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price...These words from the notorious swindler Charles Ponzi, regarded as the biggest exponent of investment scam, did not seem misplaced when two disparate sets of people landed at the office of the Commissioner of Police (CoP) in the city earlier this week. Writ large on their faces was the pain of having lost the meagre savings, made often by sacrificing even needs, to two swindlers. These were the freshest victims of the chit fund scam that has broken many families and lives across the State.
Deepavali chit fund is popular among the people from the poor and the middle classes for myriad reasons, including low investment amount (starting at Rs 100) made weekly, biweekly or monthly for a fixed period in return of a bloated maturity amount or gift. The visitors to the office of the CoP were representing 500 people, who lost their money to two individuals: Mariappan and Selvaraj. The magnitude of the scam is yet to be ascertained, but a majority of the victims are from poor backgrounds.
N Ram Kumar (34), an auto driver from Ponnagaram, met a representative of Selvaraj at a tea stall. Himself a gas delivery agent, the representative spun a tale of such beauty that Ram bit the bait. “He said that all I had to do was to pay `100 a week for 52 weeks for a return of Rs 7,000, an amount Rs 1,800 over his investment.”
Now, J Ranjith (42) of Keelavasal was assured that if he enrolled 25 new customers, his takeaway would be Rs 7,000. Selvaraj used to dangle the carrot of assured gift or exponential returns in front of his representatives to keep them busy. This network of representatives ensured that Selvaraj never had to interact with customers.
His representatives were unwittingly trapped in the web, into which they lured new customers, while Selvaraj laughed all the way to the bank. Mariappan, however, always believed in a personal touch. That is how R Petchiammal (37) of Bharathi Nagar lost her meagre savings she had built drop by drop evading the eyes of her daily wage labourer husband. “I was a regular customer. He had religiously returned my investment with interest the past five times. I lost all in the sixth attempt,” she said. Mariappan escaped with his family days before the investments were to mature.
Meanwhile, the police officer said, “These swindlers use the ignorance of the people regarding the banking services to their advantage through personal touch and thus, the poor become victims. We are after Mariappan. However, in Selvaraj’s case, investigations are still on while a few have been nabbed.”
One thousand victims!
In 2018, a couple — Saminathan and Satya — was arrested for allegedly cheating over 1,000 people of several lakhs of rupees. The couple had promised to provide fireworks and other provisions in exchange for investing in their chit fund. The two had asked one customer — Kumar — to accompany them to Sivakasi to purchase the crackers but took a detour, locked Kumar in a house in Nagercoil and escaped.