Nirmal Krishna chit fund scam: Investors' relief is still away

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the key accused in the Nirmal Krishna financial scam are already in police custody, it would be a long wait for around 5,000 investors to get their money back, for inter-state legal tangles. The two cases registered at Museum police here was transferred to the city crime branch assistant commissioner Santosh M. S. The team will be seeking custody of the key accused Nirmalan K.  

Tamil Nadu police had on Sunday held three others - Nirmalan's brother Narayanan and employees Mahesh and Radhakrishnan. Mr Narayanan allegedly keeps a good portion of Nirmalan’s benami wealth. Nearly 5,000 people have so far lodged formal complaints with investments running to Rs 400 crore. There were people who invested up to '80 lakh from their pensionary benefits.  Police also believes several persons who had invested huge amounts from illegal income were reluctant to come out.  According to sources, the Tamil Nadu police's economic offence wing had seized a good portion of the declared and undeclared wealth of the promoters. Many other assets of Nirmalan were taken over by a receiver appointed by a local court here in an insolvency suit he filed.

Hence the case would witness a legal tangle.  The Supreme Court had clarified in several verdicts that the court's jurisdiction over a crime depends on the place of occurrence. All registered offices of Nirmal Krishna group, including Nirmal Krishna Chit Fund and Nirmal Krishna Nidhi, are in Tamil Nadu. Hence the cheating case would be under its jurisdiction.  The insolvency petition at the court here was also allegedly a ploy to complicate the case.