Bhubaneswar CBI nabs chit fund scam mastermind from Tamil Nadu

Bhubaneswar, Aug 4 (UNI) The Bhubaneswar unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested the director of Rightmax Technotrade International Limited, a money circulation company which duped thousands of investors from Odisha from Tamil Nadu, the premier investigating agency said on Monday.

The accused Sivakumar Gangadharan, who was on the run since 2018 and frequently changing his whereabouts, from Karur in Tamil Nadu, it said, Rightmax Technotrade, a money circulation firm with its headquarters in Bangalore, was listed among 44 ponzi firms by the CBI, which is probing into the multi-crore chit fund scam.

The case, initially registered in 2014, involved allegations of fraud, criminal conspiracy, and violations of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

After being declared a proclaimed offender in 2019, Sivakumar was traced through technical and source information.

A CBI team from Bhubaneswar apprehended him on Sunday, and produced him before the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, which remanded him to 14-day judicial custody, CBI added.

The money circulation company offered an attractive package for investment with return as high as 10 per cent monthly interest on the deposits.

The gullible investors, little aware of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)’s regulation on investment, made deposits. After the initial high return, the investors were deceived as the company did not pay back the sum as pledged by it.