In 18 years, 15.51 lakh investors lost Rs 5,364 crore, says EOW

It’s been 18 years since the constitution of Tamil Nadu Police’s economic offence wing in 2000 after a number of private non-banking financial institutions downed their shutters leaving lakhs of investors in lurch. The agency has been trying to help 15.5 lakh investors to retrieve their money.

“So far, half of the total number of depositors have received all their money; 7.26 lakh investors have received Rs 1,526.79 crore deposit in total back from the finance companies which downed its shutters,” said additional director general of police, Sunil Kumar Singh, who is now heading the wing.

So far, the wing has attached properties worth Rs.1985 crore, the officer added.

Entrusted to deal with fraudulent financial activities, the wing has been relentlessly working to refund money to investors.

In the last 18 years, the EOW registered 1,973 cases, of which 49 were registered in 2018. Also last year, 45 people were arrested in connection to such cases and Rs188 crore was returned to 9,474 depositors.

The wing has managed to refund Rs 26 crore – 5,280 investors received the entire amount while 4,194 people received a partial amount. The agency had identified properties worth Rs.127.7 crore belonging to the defaulters and sent proposals to the government to attach properties worth Rs 47.56 crore. In turn. the government issued order for the ad-intern attachment of the properties worth Rs 3.44 crore.

“Our aim is to get back the depositors’ money. And it is a long process,” said Sunil Kumar Singh. “First, we have to identify the properties belonging to the accused companies. In some cases, many of these properties are already pledged with banks. 

After identifying the properties, we sent the proposal to government. Once it is approved, the properties will be auctioned by the Revenue department,” added the EOW chief.

Currently, the sleuths are working in cases linked to Disc Assets Leads India Ltd, Nathella and Nirmal Krishna Nidhi more.

The EOW has a separate unit named commercial crime investigation wing under it. This unit was formed to investigate offences related to swindling of funds in co-operative societies and the offences in 12 departments as such director of handloom and textile, director of sugar, director of Khadi and village industries, registrar of housing, director of fisheries, director of industries and commerce, director of animal husbandry, commissioner of milk production and diary development, director of oil seeds, director of agro engineering, director of sericulture and agriculture and director of social welfare.

The Commercial Crime Investigation Wing (CCIW) registers cases based on complaints from various departments after internal enquiries. Last year, the CCIW had registered 69 cases and arrested 134 people.

Idol wing CID, the unit that investigates theft and smuggling of idols across the state, is also an EOW wing.

The EOW launched an interactive messaging service application a year ago. It is aimed at cautioning investors and possible investors. The app can offer information about financial firms, including those who have criminal cases pending against them, RBI status and registration details. People who are interested in utilising this service can send a text to 7598765105 in the following format “TNEOW*Company name*place* caller name*.