I Nithi Vignesh
CHENNAI: It has been more than a decade fighting for their money from Hitech Business Netork, a chit fund company that shut down in 2014. The half naked protestors in their late 60s were seen fighting tears when the police cleared them from the ptotesting site at Anna Salai near the SEBI office in Chennai.
The protestors mostly employers and depositors alleged that the company stopped paying promised returns to investors and claimed that the overall loss and loot could be around Rs 300 crores as on date in currency value.
Vetrivel, who led the protestors told DT Next that the they submitted a petition to SEBI officials expressing dissatisfaction with the earlier response received. They claimed SEBI officials did not address their concerns, but questioned the investors for not investing in a legally registered company.
"HBN, which began operations in Tamil Nadu in 2002, attracted thousands of investors through its chit fund schemes and allegedly stopped paying back the investors from 2007," Vetrivel stated. This prompted affected individuals to file a police complaint and further court proceedings. The case has been heard by the Mumbai High Court and NCLT, but there is no respite for us, fumed the protestors. After receiving the petition, SEBI officials informed the protestors that the next hearing would be held on April 18 and assured neccesary action.