Shadowy operations of chit fund scamsters

The crime branch had unearthed the Rs 500 crore chit fund scam in north Orissa’s Balasore district nearly four months ago. The investigation into the case is still on. Significantly, the enforcement directorate of government of India has also begun its investigation into the case.

Naseer Khan, the actor-producer of the Hindi movie, ‘Shadow,’ released across the country a couple of months back, was recently arrested by the crime branch in connection with the case. He was subsequently granted bail by the Orissa high court.

Though Khan has vehemently denied the crime branch’s charge that he had played a key role in the scam, the investigating agency insists that the actor-producer was very much part of the financial fraud.
To prove its point, the crime branch maintained that during the investigation its sleuths found that Khan was one of the directors of a Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) based private financial company which was a major player in the on-line chit fund scam.

That’s not all. Apart from Khan, the co-producer of the film ‘Shadow,’ Samshed Alam also turned out to be another director of the same financial company.

Moreover, according to the crime branch, during investigation it had also found evidence of crores of scam money being transferred to the account of the movie production company which had produced the film.

If the Orissa crime branch and the enforcement directorate can prove the Bollywood links with the multi-crore scam in a court of law, then it would definitely add another black spot on the image of the Hindi film industry — which had been mired in controversies from time to time for various reasons, including its links with the underworld.

The problem with Bollywood is that it had never attempted to clean its plate on its own. As a result, rotten elements get an opportunity to enter the trade and defame the entire entertainment industry. There was a ray of hope when a section of the country’s corporate sector made its foray into film production a couple of years back.

Unfortunately, the move did nothing significant except helping skyrocketing of remuneration of some of the ‘star’ actors, actresses and directors, which ultimately led to a sharp rise in production cost of film making.

The scam has also pushed to the fore the fact that excessive greed continues to drive common Indian investors to invest their hard earned money in dubious financial companies despite repeated warning from agencies like the RBI and the SEBI.

The investors who have lost their money in the scam had recently held a demonstration in Balasore demanding immediate action against the scamsters and recovery of their money. But they must realise that they would not have suffered like this had they been a little less greedy and made their investment wisely.