Chit Fund Scam: Tripura High Court Directs Appointment Of Special Prosecutors Within 2 Weeks

The Tripura High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to appoint special public prosecutors for conducting the proceedings in the cases related to Tripura Chit Fund scam within 2 weeks.

This direction came from the Bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S. G. Chattopadhyay as it noted that the case was registered in the year 2014 but the people (depositers) are still waiting for the refund of their deposits.

"Eight long years have gone by and in spite of what has been stated in the affidavit, in reality the people are poor investors from the State of Tripura remain uncleared with the fond hope that some day in the not too distant future, their deposits may be refunded to them," the Bench observed.

Persuing the affidavit filed by the State Government, the Court noted that investigation in 71 cases have been completed by the SIT and only one other case remains pending for conclusion and charge sheets have been filed against 480 accused persons.

It was further informed to the Court that actions have been initiated to attach properties of the Companies and the Directors and the steps taken by the SIT as well as by the State are likely to bare through at an early date.

However, the Court directed the State Government to appoint special counsel in various Courts where all the charge sheets have been submitted by the SIT within a period of two weeks.

They shall in turn submit weekly reports to the Head of the SIT which shall ensure that all necessary steps as required from the prosecution is taken up at an early date, the Court further directed.

Regadring the attachment of the properties of the accused, the Court called upon the Special Judges of the Special Courtsto take up the issue with the due urgency that the matter deserves. 

Further, the Court also called upon the Union of India to issue necessary instructions to the ASGs where requests are sent from the State of Tripura pertaining to any action that needs to be taken vis-a-vis the attachment of the properties of the accused, who are located outside the state of Tripura.

Lastly, the State was directed to put out advertisement in all local newspapers especially in vernacular having wide circulation throughout the State of Tripura as well as through the medium of social media as well as television making people aware that they can lodge their claim statements along with necessary documents before the authority created by the State.

The matter has been further put up for hearing on January 4, 2021.

It may be noted that in the year 2014, the Tripura government had decided to hand over all 74 cases of chit fund scams to CBI, which were being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed by the Tripura High Court in the year 2015 to probe cases related to chit funds and non-banking financial companies.

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