Investors protest in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: Hundreds of investors, allegedly duped by various money deposit collection companies, today staged a demonstration at Lower PMG Square demanding steps by the government for refund of money within a stipulated time frame.

The protesters alleged that though the state government had announced the constitution of a corpus fund, it was yet to materialise.

“The government seems to be indifferent to the plight of the investors. It has only been giving us assurances,” alleged convener of the United Forum of Depositors Jayant Das.

In July, the state government had announced to constitute a corpus fund of Rs 300 crore to help the victims of fraudulent deposit collection companies.

Officials in the economic offence wing of crime branch said 380 cases had been registered against 158 such companies so far.

Among the companies against whom cases have been filed are Saradha Group, Artha Tatwa Group, Swastik India Multi-State Credit Co-Operative Society Limited, Sahara Credit Co-Operative Society Limited and Rose Valley.

Some 488 persons have been arrested in this connection so far.

Though the economic offence wing is yet to ascertain the exact amount of money collected by these companies, it is believed that the scam involves many thousand crores of rupees.

“We have been confiscating the properties of such companies. We have also managed to arrest a number of top officials of such companies,” said deputy inspector general of crime branch and officer in charge of the economic offence wing Rajesh Kumar.

In another development, inquiring into the scam, Justice R.K. Patra Commission has extended the deadline for submission of affidavits to September 18. Earlier, the deadline was August 31. The commission has so far received more than 16,000 affidavits.