SC cancels bail to two chit-fund scam accused

The Supreme Court on Tuesday cancelled the bail granted to two top officers of an Odisha-based chit-fund company, saying they were accused of cheating a large number of innocent depositors and misappropriating their hard-earned money and could use “unlawful means” to obstruct selling of the firm's properties.

A bench of Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Sanjeev Khanna said there was a need for the top court to view “such economic offences having a deep-rooted conspiracy and involving a huge loss of investors’ money seriously”.

The apex court said the Orissa HC should not have released the two accused Ramendu Chattopadhyay and Ashis Chatterjee, CMD and director respectively of Tower Infotech Ltd. The company was accused of collecting funds amounting to Rs 25.59 crore from the public in the name of huge returns but did not repay the amount to the tune of Rs. 15.69 crore.

The CBI, which lodged an FIR on a direction by the top court in 2014 in Saradha-chit fund scam, contended that during the periods of bail of the accused, not a single property of the company could be sold, despite the efforts made by one-man committee headed by Justice S P Talukdar, appointed for this purpose. It questioned the HC's orders granting a repeated extension of interim bail to the two accused.

“The investigation discloses that they played a key role in the promotion of the chit fund scam. If they continue on bail, there is little chance of realising any amount by selling the properties of the Tower Group of companies,” the court said.