Relentless Kanva scam victims seek status of refunds

Bengaluru: Nearly 200 people, who were victims of the Kanva cooperative scam, gathered at the Regional Commissioner’s (RC) office in Shanti Nagar on Tuesday morning, seeking an update on the refund of their investments.

The residents — the majority of whom were senior citizens  — were led by Narendra Kumar, the president of Nagaraika Shakti, a non-governmental organization (NGO).

After a brief meeting outside the RC’s office, the victims led by Kumar met Narasimhappa, Additional Regional Commissioner and submitted a memorandum with a list of the demands.

Their demands include the partial-refund process should start within 2023 and “all depositors of the Kanva Group should get the equitable amount from the funds already available”, all depositors who submitted claims with proper proof should be informed about the amount due as soon as possible, the claimants should be informed about missing documents and allowed to submit them in the next few weeks.

They also demanded the properties permitted to be made absolute must be sold within three months, the second round of partial refunds should be distributed to eligible depositors and a petition seeking permission to distribute refund should be filed in special court along with the list of eligible claimants and the partial amount being distributed to them.

Many have died

A few victims of the nearly Rs 950-crore Sree Kanva Souharda Cooperative Credit Limited scam said that they received some returns till 2017. The Ponzi scheme went bust in 2019. Nearly 22,000 people, mostly senior citizens, from different parts of the state had invested and many of them have died, the victims said.

“Initially, we were offered returns of 15%, then it came down to 12% and 10%,” Venkatram Reddy, 66, a resident of Jalahalli told DH.

Reddy had invested Rs 20 lakh, while his wife invested Rs 9 lakh since 2015.

KG Chandrashekar, 78, from Rajaji Nagar, said that he had invested Rs 9.5 lakh in 2017. Yathiraj, 55, a resident of Raja Rajeshwari Nagar, said that he had invested Rs 17 lakh in 2019.