MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Madurai Economic Offences Wing (EOW), to expedite the process of verifying and attaching the properties of the Neomax Group, its directors and employees, in the Neomax financial fraud case.
Justice B Pugalendhi gave the direction on a batch of petitions filed by some of the depositors, who were defrauded by the company, seeking attachment of the company’s properties identified by them in Theni, Tiruchy and Virudhunagar.
Justice Pugalendhi observed that the attachment proceedings under the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1997 (TNPID) is essential to recover the money of the victims from the fraudulent financial establishments.
To address the delay in attachment proceedings, the state government issued a government order on July 9, prescribing a Standard Operating Procedure for attachment of properties under the TNPID Act.
The GO also mentioned specific and structured time line for every level of coordination among the EOW, Home, Revenue and Registration departments, among others, he recalled, adding that the court had also suggested a few changes in it.
Besides this, the court had also directed formation of district-wise committees and subcommittees to conduct valuation of the properties, he noted.
Since the investigating agency submitted that the attachment proceedings are pending at various stages and the verification process is going on, the judge disposed of the petitions by directing the investigating agency to ensure that the processes are completed expeditiously without delay so that the victims can get back their money. Neomax, a group of companies doing real estate business, cheated several investors into depositing lakhs of money in various projects (plot development) by promising high returns but failed to fulfill their promise. So far, a total of 14,540 complaints have been received by the EOW to the tune of Rs 1,882 crore. Over 120 accused have been identified till date and 50 of them have been remanded to judicial custody.