Cuttack, April 16: A local court here has moved a step closer to implementing the state government's plan to refund money to investors who had been duped by unauthorised deposit collection companies.

The additional district magistrate (ADM), Cuttack, has started the process of identifying genuine investors in the Rose Valley Group of Companies by special teams on the basis of applications for refund from investors. The government had earlier invited applications from investors for refund of money. It had planned to repay them by auctioning the attached properties of Ponzi firms under the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 2011.

The ADM, Cuttack, is the competent authority for the entire process under the act. Earlier, it had invited applications from investors in Rose Valley following orders from the special designated court in the case.

Sources said around three lakh investors in the Rose Valley Group from across the state had submitted their claims for refund by the assigned date - June 2, 2016 - before the tehsildars in their area.

The Odisha Computer Applications Centre has since digitised the applications and prepared a database to facilitate the identification process of genuine investors.

"The database of investors has been sent to the tehsildars to get details in the applications verified and identify genuine investors in their respective tehsils by a three-member special team consisting of an officer not below the rank of assistant-sub inspector of police, revenue inspector or amin and a block extension officer," ADM, Cuttack, Raghuram Iyer told The Telegraph today. After verification, the tehsildars will send the list of genuine investors in their respective tehsils to the ADM, Cuttack.

"We will submit the total list of genuine investors submitted by the tehsildars before the special designated court for approval for refund of money," Iyer said.

On February 25, 2015, the special designated court had directed the ADM, Cuttack, to distribute the sale proceeds from the auction of properties of the Rose Valley Group equally among the investors.

The properties were attached during inquiry by the economic offences wing of state CID-Crime Branch into the scam. The attached properties, including movable and immovable assets, are worth Rs 63.64 crore according to official estimates.

The ADM, Cuttack, had made two previous attempts to auction the properties, but failed to attract bidders. The government is now re-estimating the base price to put the properties up for auction again, an official source said.

On October 20, 2015, the state government had issued a notification to create a corpus fund for protecting the interest of depositors.

A month later, the government had announced that Rs 300 crore had been kept aside for the corpus fund for payment of compensation.