50 lakh victims of fraud await justice in Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA: Around 50 lakh victims of various schemes of fraudulent companies in the state are waiting for justice. The victims are almost one-eighth of the total population of the state. They are running from pillar to post for justice. Fraudulent companies or institutions across the state have been cheating people, mostly the educated from middle class families. For example in the case of Avani Gold Farms and Estates, the company and its directors collected huge amounts of money from the public in Andhra Pradesh in the guise of investing in real estate and cheated them for an amount of Rs 19 crore. While a total of 45,000 depositors had deposited Rs 19 crore, three cases have been registered and all are being investigated by the CID, Andhra Pradesh.

The CID has arrested T. Malayadri, D. Venk-ateswarlu and E. Ravi Kumar Gowd in this case. In the case related to Abhaya Gold Infratech India, Vijayawada, the company and its directors collected huge amounts of money from around four lakh depositors in Andhra Pradesh in the guise of investing in real estate and cheated them for an amount of around Rs 221 crore. While the CID has registered 19 cases, the accused — Kukatla Srinivasa Rao alias Sreenu , K.S. Panindra Murthy, Sampath, and K. Rajani Kumar — have been arrested.

In the year 2001, one Pushpam Appalanaidu had registered Gold Quest International Private Limited under the Companies Act, 1956 at Chennai. The main objective of the company was “to establish a market of import and export of numismatic and other precious and non-precious metal products including jewellery made from gold, platinum, palladium, radium and silver and precious and non- precious stones” and develop it in India and abroad. The directors established a chain link system and collected deposits from the public by telling them that the numismatic coin would fetch them good returns. They collected more than Rs 110 crore from 56,000 people in Andhra Pradesh.

In another case, a firm by name Bommarillu Farms and Villas and its sister concerns introduced schemes like real estate, daily accounts, fixed deposits, monthly schemes, recurring deposits and thereby beguiled the general public to invest their money with the firms promising to pay more money in a short span. They cheated around 20,000 depositors, collecting Rs 85 crore.

In Agri Gold, 32 lakh people cheated:

In the Agri Gold case, the company cheated 32 lakh depositors across the country. In Andhra Pradesh, the affected depositors are 19.52 lakh. It collected Rs 6,380 crore across the country; the AP depositors share was Rs 3,966 crore.  In the Akshya Gold case, the company cheated 10.11 lakh depositors in AP and collected Rs 335.75 crore. The CID has registered 19 cases against the company.

The case related to Keshava Reddy School, Kurnool, it is a case of cheating and defaulting in the return of deposits either in cash or in kind or defaulting in interest payment on the deposit amount of the depositors (parents of the students) of Keshava Reddy School. Total depositors are 11,000 and the amount collected by the School is Rs 750 crore. The CID has registered seven cases against the management of the school.

In the case related to Secured Investment Making Services (SIMS), Kanamarlapudi Surendra Babu alias K. Surendra Gupta of Visakhapatnam along with 11 others started three different units — SIMS Services, SIMS Projects and SIMs Insurance. All the three firms were registered with the Registrar of Firms, Visakhapatnam. The company introduced several packages under SIMS Projects and collected money to the tune of Rs 340 crore from 48,439 depositors through their 19 branc-hes in the guise of investing in real estate business.

In another case, N-Mart deployed franchisers and agents who collected Rs 126 crore deposits from 2.26 lakh depositors by enrolling members as Independent Business Associates with false promises. They were offered easy and quick money, incentives and commissions for enrolling members into the scheme. The company resorted to money circulation and promoted illegal money circulation in contravention of the provisions of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978 (Central Act No.43 of 1978) and the provisions of  Andhra Pra-desh Protection of Dep-ositors of Financial Est-ablishments Act-1999.

In Siri Gold Farms and Estates case, the company has cheated 45,000 depositors with dubious words, collected deposits by promising them payment of huge rate of interest and thereafter misappropriated the amount and closed the firm. The management started its business with 500 agents in the year 2008 and has collected Rs 95 crore. In VR Chits, Visakhapatnam, case, the company has collected Rs 33 crore from 3,303 depositors, from 1998 to 2005. All cases are pending trial.