A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising of Chief Justice Manjulla Chellur and Justice Arijit Banerjee has expressed displeasure over the role of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), in connection with the MPS chit fund case.
The Justices asked why Sebi had not deposited the money received by selling some
properties of the company in Jhargram to the committee set up by the High Court. The Court has directed Sebi to deposit Rs 2.46 crore received by selling MPS’ property to the committee along with interest. Sebi had seized some of MPS’ property on August 14, 2015 but did not deposit the sale proceeds to the committee.
The matter will come up for hearing on June 23. The High Court set up a committee, headed by former Justice (retd) SP Talukdar, after studying the petitions filed by the investors in a PIL. The Court also appointed Mahadeb Talukdar, former Registrar of High Court, as the nodal officer of the committee.
Talukdar played an important role in returning money back to the investors of Sanchyita in 1980s. Sanchayita, a chit fund company, flourished in the 1970s. It had collected money from hundreds and thousands of investors, who initially got high premium. Eventually, the company was closed and its owner died under mysterious circumstances.
The investors of MPS chit fund company had razed the firm’s office in Bangur Avenue last year, demanding return of the money they had invested after the firm was closed without giving any intimation. They had even blocked the Kazi Nazrul Islam Sarani.
The CBI started its investigation and arrested some senior employees, including three directors, Shantanu Chowdhury, Pradip Kumar Chanda and Madhusudan Adhikary.
CBI officials also arrested Pramatha Nath Manna, Chairman and Managing Director of the company. Later, a PIL was filed before the High Court. Several chit fund companies began mushrooming during the CPI(M) regime and most of them had connections with the party bigwigs. The chit fund agents convinced people – particularly those coming from a middle-class background and the rural populace – to withdraw money from Central government deposits, like post offices, and invest the money with the chit fund companies because of high rate of interest. Many people became victims and eventually when the firms closed they became paupers. Many investors who had deposited money with MPS committed suicide.