Chit fund scam: 90k small depositors to get back money in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Following directive by Odisha government, around 90,000 small depositors, who lost their money to chit fund firms, are likely to get their refunds soon.

Official sources said that the tehsildars have already started verification process of the small depositors (depositors who had invested upto Rs 10,000 in various chit fund firms in Odisha). The depositors will get back their money after verification.

Initially, the money will be refunded to total 88,228 depositors. More depositors will get back their money subsequently.

Notably, Justice MM Das Commission that probed into the chit fund scam in Odisha identified around 1 lakh small depositors.

According to reports, the finance department had directed the officials for error free verification to indentify the chit fund victims. As per the directive, the small depositors identified by the chit fund Commission will have to deposit bond and furnish the first page of their bank passbook at Tehsils of respective districts. After receiving the bond and documents from the depositors, the tehsildars will forward the documents to the district collectors, who will make process for depositing money at bank accounts of the chit fund depositors by electronic transfer.

Worth mentioning, various chit fund firms have duped their depositors to the tune of around Rs 4,600 crore.

Earlier, the state government had set up a Rs 300 crore corpus fund in 2013 to refund small depositors. However, it was a lengthy process to identify the genuine depositors.