DEO to continue probe of chit fund scams in coordination with Talukdar committee

Kolkata: With proper coordination with Justice (Retired) SP Talukdar committee, the Directorate of Economic Offence (DEO) will continue with its probe into the alleged illegal collection of money through various chit fund schemes by different groups, including three companies of the Alchemist Group.

Justice Talukdar committee, that was set up by the Calcutta High Court, will start distributing cheques among the people, who had invested in the companies under Alchemist Group, from July 2 onwards. The DEO has also urged the investors to submit their details with them to prepare a list and the agency will be sharing the same with the Talukdar committee.

In a bid to prepare the list of investors in the companies of Alchemist Group, the agency has also given advertisements in dailies, seeking their detailed information. At the same time, the probe into the allegations against the companies will continue "as there is no legal bar in continuing with the investigation". The committee will keep informing about the development of its probe periodically.

Similarly, the agency will also continue to probe the cases related to Hahnemann Herbal Limited, MSD Group, Swarnabhoomi Group and ESBI group, which are also being looked into by the committee.

It may be mentioned that mainly three companies of the Alchemist Group – Alchemist Holding Limited, Alchemist Infra Realty Limited and Alchemist Township India Limited – had collected the money in the time period between 2005 and 2014. Sources said that there are around 20 directors of the three groups and they are suspected to be directly involved with the raising of money.

The money was collected assuring a high rate of return. But the investors didn't get back their money as assured and finally lodged complaints against the companies.

It has been learnt that the agency has already gone through the relevant documents of all the three companies of Alchemist Group. Based on the findings after going through the documents, the investigating agency is further continuing with the probe.

At present, DEO is probing into the cases of illegal collection of money by several companies under a total of 22 groups and there are around 199 other groups whose activities are also under the scanner of the agency at present. The agency would initiate a probe against the groups if their activities are found to be "illegal".