Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 22
Yet another case of investment related fraud has come to light in Dimapur. The scam involves an estimated Rs. 20 crore deposited by around 600 investors with a reportedly non-banking firm called – Jeevan Suraksha Associates Marketing Pvt. Ltd. A case of fraud is already registered against the firm and its management, with one in police custody and a second under house arrest.
The trail of the fraud is traced back to the year 2003, when the firm opened an office here in Dimapur at Nagarjan as a non-banking product selling company; yet it primary dealt in monetary investment. Later on, the office spread out its wings opening three branches in Dimapur – one at Purana Bazar, and two more at the Dhobinullah intersection. According to copies of documentation, the company has its registered office in Lumding, Nagaon in Assam and is said to be registered with the Reserve Bank of India. It reportedly has more than 400 branches spread across the north-east.
The modus operandi was simple – ‘invest a certain amount of money for a specified period of time and get returns at periodic intervals or one-time return alongwith capital invested and interest after a pre-specified period of time’ (recurring deposits/fixed deposits). In the meantime, it recruited as many as 400 field agents, who in turn brought investors. Enticed by the easy returns, the investors grew in number as time went on rising to around 600.
It all looked fine until this year when returns got delayed or completely stopped. Meanwhile, in Assam investors got suspicious over the company’s dealings but it had little or no effect here. Finally, one of the firm’s manager based in Dhobinullah went missing in October leaving many of its agents high and dry. Not surprisingly or interestingly, as many as half of the agents have gone underground, not to be seen.
Discovering it was a fraud, the remaining agents alongwith the investors eventually lodged a police complaint against the company, its head management and the branch executives here in Dimapur. A twist emerged when it was discovered that a police complaint was lodged against the company’s head management towards the end of October by two of its branch executives (branch managers) in Dimapur.
For reasons unknown, the case was not registered. A couple of days after the complaint was made, one of the branch managers identified as Biswajit Das went missing.
One agent cum investor disclosed that the agents and the investors banded together and lodged a police complaint on November 20 against four of the company’s top executives, namely – Chandan Das (managing director), Arju Acharjee (chairman), Uttam Acharjee (general manager) and Ashok Chakravarthy (director). In the list also included the absconding Biswajit Das and another branch manager identified as Toshienla Jamir. The latter is now under house arrest. Dimapur Police have registered a case under sections 409 and 420 of the IPC against the six. The agent added that the branches remained open till Durga Puja but did not resume after the holidays.
Adding another twist to the case, the one identified as Uttam Acharjee was arrested in Kolkata by the CBI around the time after Durga Puja. How the CBI got into the picture could not be ascertained. A team of Dimapur police will be bringing the accused here for questioning.
It was further learned that the agents and the investors will be meeting in Dimapur on Friday to decide on further course of action.
