Govt nod sought to confiscate Rs 150 cr AT group assets

OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Jan 28:

Commissionerate Police today sought permission from the state Finance department to confiscate Rs 150 crore worth of properties belonging to chit fund company Artha Tatwa Group within the Commissionerate limits in the first phase.

Twin city Police Commissioner RP Sharma told the media today that he had written a letter seeking permission of the Finance department in the matter. The list of properties include 122.63 acres of land, bank deposits worth Rs 2 crore and 11 luxury cars valued at around Rs1 crore, he added.

Sharma said during its investigations the Commissionerate police has come to know that 40 individuals/institutions have taken money from the Group and notices have been issued to 23 of them for realisation. Their names will be disclosed soon, he added.

In November last year, Commissionerate Police had seized 13 vehicles and some plots of land belonging to the Artha Tatwa Group in the course of its investigation into the multi-crore chit fund scam.

The jailed CMD of chit fund company Artha Tatwa Group Pradeep Sethi is now on a 15-day police remand beginning January 14 following an order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate court, Sambalpur in response to several appeals made by the Sambalpur district police earlier in 2013.

Sethi was taken on remand by the Sambalpur police in connection with the alleged chit-fund fraud in the state.

Sethi was lodged in the Jharpada jail since his arrest by Commissionerate Police on May 2013 based on an FIR lodged in the local Kharvela Nagar police station for duping an MCL official named Raghumani Das of around Rs 6 lakh. He allegedly collected the money from Das by promising attractive returns through various ponzi schemes.

Commissionerate Police found Sethi involved in financial fraud amounting to the tune of more than Rs 350 crore, collected from gullible investors across the state.

There are 25 criminal cases against Sethi in different police stations in the state. AT group has allegedly collected deposits of at least Rs 1.5 crore from the capital city alone.

A number of cases have been registered against him earlier in several districts including Balasore, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Khurda and Mayurbhanj. The Commissionerate Police is investigating nine out of 11 companies of the group.

While all other cases relating to the chit-fund scam are being investigated by Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch (CB), Commissionerate Police is probing the AT group’s case.