Gullible investors, who have put their hard-earned money in Secured Investment Making Services (SIMS), have formed into an association, the SIMS Badhitula Sangham to fight for recovery of money invested by victims. The sangham represents people not only from north Andhra but also those from other parts of the State. Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, Sangham president K. Chakravarthy and secretary G. Srinivasa Rao alleged that 45,000 investors from all over the State were cheated by the company. A rally would be taken out from the Gandhi statue near Aseelmetta to the Collectorate on Monday as a part of their first phase of the agitation. In the second phase, a round table conference, meetings and relay hunger strikes would be held.
Helpline
They called upon all the victims to participate in Monday’s rally and make it a success. They also appealed to all sections of people to support them. SIMS victims from all over the State should register their names with the sangham and provide their information on the helpline numbers 99082 58705 or 94941 87730.
Mr. Chakravarthy said SIMS CMD K. Surendra Gupta, director K. Jagga Rao and other directors were involved in the scam in which over Rs.500 crore was collected from depositors. Though the scam was detected more than two weeks ago, only Surendra Gupta and Jagga Rao were arrested by the police so far.
The Sangham leaders said one victim had already committed suicide and five others had lost their lives due to the mental trauma as a result of losing their life’s savings. They demanded that the government should recover all the assets of the company and repay the investors in accordance with the investments made by them.
They said the company had lured investors with false promises of high interest, share in land and costly gifts. The company management claimed that they were receiving crores of rupees through trading, land deals and other businesses and promised to give a share in the profits to the investors. It had also claimed that it had close links with politicians and police officials.
They also demanded investigation into the ‘Rs.500 crore-fraud’ by a specialised agency like the CBI; seizure of the assets, which were in the names of the CMD and directors all over the State, and distribute it among the investors who lost their money; recovery of the advances paid to land owners and building owners by SIMS management and establishment of a special cell at the Collectorate to gather information from victims all over the State and do justice to them.
