Chit fund scam: Judicial panel tenure extended by 6 months

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has extended the tenure of the judicial commission probing into the multi-crore chit fund scam by next six months with effect from February 5.

A notification in this regard was issued by the Home department here on Saturday.

"Tenure of Hon'ble Justice (Retd.) M M Das Commission of Inquiry on unauthorised collection of public deposits further extended by the government of Odisha for six months with effect from 5.2.2018," the notification said.

The Commission has meanwhile identified a total of 55,563 small depositors in the fourth phase after verifying 1,38,388 affidavits submitted by the investors.

The commission has also recommended the state government to refund money deposited by the small investors on priority basis.

Earlier, the commission had submitted its third interim report to the government identifying 41,519 small investors in July last year.

Over 3 lakh affidavits have been examined by the commission so far out of 8.7 lakh filed by the investors duped by many chit fund companies in Odisha.

Around 342 chit fund companies have already been served notice in this regard, sources said.

The State Government created a corpus of Rs 300 crore for the purpose of refunding money to the small depositors.