Bhopal: The Balaghat district police in Madhya Pradesh have raided the offices of a few chit fund companies and seized 25 note counting machines and Rs 200 crore, official sources said on Tuesday. The directors of those companies deceived the residents of 25 villages under Kirnapur, Lanji and Hattapur police stations in Balaghat in the name of doubling their money in three months, official sources said.
Such companies were spread in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. The chit fund companies with the help of nearly two lakh cheque books of Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and those of HDFC Bank made black money worth Rs 40,000 crore.
The directors of the companies bought 200 currency note counting machines and have been operating since 2014. More than 10,000 farmers handed over their hard-earned money kept in 200 national banks in the area. Besides money, they gave their landed properties to the companies and, falling into their trap, a few farmers allegedly committed suicide.
Aside from the farmers, the jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), teachers, Panchayat secretaries and women members of the self-help groups invested in the chit fund companies. They, however, did not get the money as promised by the companies on some pretext order, sources said.
When Saurabh Suman took over as the superintendent of police and received complaints about those fake companies, he launched a campaign against them. According to sources, the rules of the Reserve Bank of India do not permit a chit fund company to keep more than Rs 500,000.
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Locals said that the companies used to pitch in tents and collect money, but the administration barely took any action against them. The police said that they had confiscated 25 note counting machines and Rs 200 crore, and that they would continue to take action against the firms.
