Jamshedpur: The festival of lights has brought with it a ray of hope for over one lakh Jharkhand residents who had burnt their fingers by investing over Rs 300 crore in a finance company that shut shop abruptly in 2000.

Now, it has come to light that Golden Forest India (GFIL), among the big NBFCs of the 1980s, has a cash reserve of Rs 700 crore which could be used to repay the investors who had put in money through the '80s and '90s in various social forestry schemes rolled out by the NBFC on the promise of lucrative returns.

According to the general secretary of the Golden Forest National Investors' Forum, Sudip Mukherjee, who is an investor too, they were now hopeful of getting their money back as the Supreme Court-appointed provincial liquidator, K. Garewal, had submitted GFIL's balance sheet to Delhi High Court that is hearing their case.

The balance sheet reveals Rs 700 crore as cash in bank.

"It is now official that the NBFC has Rs 700 crore in its bank which can be disbursed among investors for clearing their outstandings," Mukherjee told The Telegraph on Wednesday, adding that the provincial liquidator has also asked the high court to allow him to begin disbursements to investors.

In all, 25 lakh people are said to have invested in schemes floated by the Chandigarh-based NBFC. Over one lakh of them are in Jharkhand, 40,000 of them from Jamshedpur who are primarily retired employees who had invested, in all, Rs 112 crore on the promise of doubling their money in three-and-a- half years.

Ranchi and Bokaro account for another 40,000 investors, while 12,000 people of Dhanbad also fell for GFIL's promise. People of Hazaribagh, Deoghar and some other districts also invested in GFIL.

Mukherjee said that 15 lakh investors from across the country had already submitted claims but were yet to get back their money.

"My friends and I had invested over Rs 10 lakh in Golden Forest schemes in 1990," said a former Tata Motors employee, who had put in Rs 5 lakh.

"We preferred this NBFC as it promised us good returns. But now we are left in the lurch. We are running from pillar to the post for getting our money back. That the NBFC has Rs 7000 crore in its bank account has raised our hopes. The money can be distributed among investors," he added.

Kapil Sharma, a former government employee, said he had invested Rs 3 lakh in the NBFC. "I am yet to get back the money. Golden Forest downed shutters in 2000. Now, we look forward to the high court for justice," said the resident of Lalpur Chowk, Ranchi.