Chit fund accused to be brought to Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR : The CBI is planning to bring the five directors of Real Tulip India Limited, a chit fund company, on remand to Bhubaneswar after they were arrested in Kolkata on Wednesday. The five has been identified as Tirtha Haldar, Malay Kumar Guha, Dipankar Ghosh, Malay Halder and Prasenjit Sil. The company is alleged to have cheated investors of nearly Rs 100 crore in Odisha and West Bengal. The company was registered in Gwalior in January 2012, the CBI said.
"We will take the accused on remand for interrogation. We will try to find out their modus operandi," a CBI officer said.
On February 4, 2015, the CBI raided offices of Real Tulip India Limited (RTIL) in Bhubaneswar and West Bengal. CBI sources said RTIL illegally collected money from the people, offering high rate of interest under non-convertible debentures (NCDs).
Debentures are long-term financial instruments which acknowledge a debt obligation towards the issuer.
"Securities and exchange board of India (SEBI) too had initiated inquiry against RTIL in June 2014 on charges of violating the Companies Act," the CBI officer said.
On November 11, 2014 SEBI had directed the company to immediately refund the money to the investors. The company ignored SEBI's direction. "Later the investors complained to us that the firm officials vanished after closing the offices," the officer added.
SEBI sources said RTIL made false claim of issuing debentures to depositors on a private placement offer. Although the NCD scheme was stated to have been made on a private placement basis, RTIL issued NCDs to 191 investors and mobilized approximately Rs 22.47 lakh for the period between 05/02/2012 and 31/03/2013.
"Rules say that a company can issue NCDs to a maximum 49 investors on the private placement basis. If the figure exceeds 49, it is called public offer," the officer explained.
SEBI also found that RTIL had violated the guidelines of listing itself before a recognized stock exchange. "The company was not listed with any recognized stock exchange. There is no evidence on record to indicate whether or not RTIL has paid money with interest to the investors," the officer added.