A sub court here on Tuesday appointed retired district judge R. Ramachandran as the official receiver to administer the assets of properties of the supposedly bankrupt Nirmal Chit Fund.
Earlier, K. Nirmalan, the chit fund owner had pleaded that he was facing insolvency and unable to pay hundreds of depositors who had invested their life savings, estimated at ₹90 crore, with his company.
The court had appointed the receiver from a panel submitted by the Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association to assuage the fear of depositors that the chit fund owner would use his influence and lobby for the appointment of a receiver of his choice.
The court and the Bar Association directly monitored the process. More than 15,000 persons had directly invested in the chit fund.
The investments included money set apart for treatment and dowry for daughters. The Tamil Nadu government had registered the firm, and it operated out of the State. The victims of the suspected fraud are those living along the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border near Thiruvananthapuram.
The Tamil Nadu police had registered a case of cheating against Nirmalan. However, the investigation proceeded at a plodding pace much to the dismay of hundreds of depositors. Meanwhile, investors aired the fear that the chit fund management had siphoned off their money and invested it in offshore shell companies.
The plight of the depositors, many of them small-time traders and owners of mom-pop convenience stores, prompted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to take up their case with his Tamil Nadu counterpart.
Mr. Vijayan also ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the suspected scam. However, the agency’s probe has been hobbled by the question of jurisdiction. The offence had technically occurred in Tamil Nadu. The stalemate has prompted demands for a CBI inquiry. The State government was reportedly for such an inquiry, the offence being an inter-State one.
