Odisha chit fund scam; CBI charge sheets Midas Touch

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Apr 17, 2015 at 9:43 PM Updated On : Apr 17, 2015 at 9:45 PM

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Apr 17:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed a preliminary charge sheet against Midas Touch, a chit fund company which had duped around Rs 50 crores from the gullible investors in Odisha at the CBI court here.

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Confirming the filing of the charge sheet, the CBI Delhi PRO said, “CBI files preliminary charge sheet in MIDAS TOUCH case (alleged chit fund scam in Odisha) against the accused Soubhagya Kumar Samal, Smt. Nirupama Samal, Midas Touch Assets and Securities Ltd and Midas Touch Realtech Ltd. ( both represented through its Managing director Soubhagya Kumar Samal ) for offences U/S 120 B/ 420/409 IPC and section 4,5 &6 of the Prize Chits and Money circulation Schemes ( Banning) Act, 1978 keeping further investigation open.”

On August 5 last year, the CBI had conducted search operation on Midas Touch Assets and Securities Ltd across five districts in the state in connection with the multi-crore Ponzi scam.

The office premises of the company in Bhubaneswar, Angul, Dhenkanal, Ganjam and Jajpur were searched by the CBI teams on the same day. The rented residential premises of its Managing Director Soubhagya Kumar Samal were also raided and incriminating documents seized by the investigating agency during the search.

An eight-member team had searched Samal’s Madhusudan Nagar office in the city the same day.

Midas Touch Assets and Securities, which was listed as a company with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Cuttack in 1995, had mobilised deposits running into crores of rupees from hundreds of investors. Though it claimed to deal in real estate, life insurance as well as consultancy, Midas Touch Assets mostly dabbled in finance schemes.

Though the company’s registered office is located in Bhubaneswar’s Madhusudan Nagar, its headquarters is in Mumbai’s Andheri.

The agreement papers seized by the CBI at the time of raid had revealed that Samal’s wife was also a director of the company, but in 2013, the board was reconstituted and other members were taken in. As per the details available with Registrar of Companies, the company’s authorised capital was Rs 22 crore and the paid-up capital stood at Rs 15.5 crore