CBI files charges against ponzi firm for cheating 35 lakh people of Rs 3,484 cr

New Delhi: The CBI has filed a charge sheet against Directors of Pune-based Samruddha Jeevan Multi State Multi Purpose Co-operative Society Ltd, Mahesh Kisan Motewar and Prasad Kishor Paraswar, in over Rs 3,484 crore ponzi scam in Odisha collected from over 35 lakh people, officials said here on Friday.

The case was registered by the CBI on directions of Supreme Court on June 4, 2014, which was earlier probed by Malkangiri police station in Odisha.

"It was alleged in the complaint that certain officials of private Multi-purpose Co-operative Society Ltd. having branch office at Malkangiri and Head Office at Shivaji Nagar, Pune (Maharashtra) were collecting money from general public through agents in different schemes illegally by promising to provide cattle and goats as well as high rate of returns on their deposits from the public and cheated them," a CBI Spokesperson said here today.

The agency said its probe revealed the then chairman and director and others offered higher rate of interests to gullible people and illegally collected money to the tune of Rs 3,678 crore from 35 lakh investors.

The maturity amount would have meant repaying Rs 4,320 crore (approx.) to the investors, but out of the said amount only Rs 8,36 crore (approx.) was paid to the customers and hence, they cheated the public to the tune of Rs 3,484 crore (approx.), the CBI said.