Police raid chit fund firm in Kollam

5 kg of unaccounted gold ornaments, Rs.2 lakh seized

CRACKDOWN: Unaccounted gold ornaments seized by the police during a raid on a private chit fund company in Kollam city on Friday.

A team from the Kollam East police detected unauthorised transactions to the tune of crores of rupees during a raid on a private financial institution at Uliyakovil in the city on Friday. As much as 5 kg of unaccounted gold ornaments was seized during the raid.

The raid, which began at 3 p.m., is expected to continue through the night.

The police raided Sathgamaya Chit Fund following a tip-off received by City Police Commissioner Debesh Kumar Behera. Preliminary investigation showed that the company was operating illegally, the police said.

Sub-inspector G. Gopakumar, who headed the police team, told

The Hindu that documents pertaining to unauthorised chit fund operations for about Rs.55 crore were seized from the office of the company by 6 p.m. More documents were being verified.

He said the unaccounted gold ornaments were seized during a simultaneous raid on the house of the owner of the chit fund company. The ornaments were not ones pledged by anyone with the company, but the personal property of the owner. An amount of Rs.2 lakh was seized from the office premises. A huge number of original title deeds of landed properties have been seized. He said that the owner of the company was absconding.