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Video Editor: Kammaljiit Kainth
When 62-year-old Ranjana Rana decided to invest her life savings in 2011, her neighbours suggested she try out the refundable holiday scheme investment opportunity that a company called Citrus Check Inns provided. Without waiting any further, Rana and her family invested over Rs 5 lakh in fixed deposits in the company over a period of three years. But when Rana tried to collect her maturity amount, she was in for a shock.
Like Rana, 18 lakh investors have been duped of around Rs 7,500 crores after they invested in the same Ponzi scheme.
In 2008, a company called Royal Twinkle Star floated a refundable holiday investment scheme. Here, people could invest their money as recurring deposits or fixed deposits and receive an interest of over 13 percent on the amount. Investors were allegedly assured that their money would double upon maturity. But in 2012, investors who did not receive their maturity amount complained to Securities and Exchange Board of India about it. SEBI then ordered the directors of the company to refund investors’ money and put an end to the scheme.
SEBI’s clampdown didn’t stop the directors of Royal Twinkle from starting another company in 2012 – Citrus Check Inns Limited, and floating a similar scheme again. Once complaints of fraud started pouring in against Citrus Check Inns Ltd. as well, SEBI barred the second investment scheme as well. The investors then approached the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT). Here, the two companies agreed to issue a No Objection Certificate liquidating their assets to repay the investors.
But shockingly, documents produced before the NCLT show that the company’s project asset is only worth Rs 3,555 crores while the principal liability is around Rs 4,700 crores and total liability is around Rs 7,500 crores.
With the matter’s now being heard in the Supreme Court, chairman of the two companies, Omprakash Goenka insisted that the total liability of his company is around Rs 4,600.
While speaking to The Quint, Goenka assured that he and his company are committed to returning the principal amount in installments and said the reason for the delay in returning the amount was due to the devaluation of his real estate assets over the last few years.
Despite these assurances, for investors like 45-year-old Neelam Mahakar, the cost of delay is too high. “The maturity should have happened in 2016-2017 but I haven’t received a single rupee. I owe debt worth Rs 4 lakhs, how will I clear this? I couldn’t collect my daughter’s hall ticket in February as I didn’t have money to pay her fees. I had invested all my money in the scheme. I have been investing Rs 7.5 lakh since 2009”, said Neelam.
33-year-old Umesh Mane invested his mother’s and his own life savings worth Rs 14 lakhs in Royal Twinkle Star Limited’s scheme. Nearly two years after the maturity date, Umesh is losing hope of ever getting his money back.
Out of 59 branches opened by the two companies, only the one in Mumbai’s Borivali hasn’t drawn shutters yet. Investors can often be seen queuing up outside the office to enquire about their hard earned money.
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