Cuttack, July 25: The Justice Madan Mohan Das Commission, which is identifying small investors duped by dubious financial companies, has submitted its third interim report to the state government to decide on the entitlement of investors eligible for compensation.

The single-member panel expected the government to take a decision on payment of compensation to another 41,519 small investors, who had deposited Rs 10,000 or less. The commission has compiled the list along with amount of compensation payable and modality of payment, sources said.

Justice Das, who took charge of the commission on February 5, 2015, following the death of Justice R.K. Patra, submitted the report today. "The third interim report was received by state home department's secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy," the panel's secretary Devraj Rout said.

The panel, which was appointed on July 9, 2013, to identify the individuals and entities that indulged in unauthorised collection of public deposits and bring out involvement of influential persons, bureaucrats and other sections of society in protecting and promoting such activities, had submitted its first interim report after almost three years on May 25 last year for payment of compensation to 8,632 small investors. The second interim report was submitted on February 3 for payment of compensation to 10,790 small investors. However, the state government had not acted on them till date, official sources said.

With the submission of the third interim report, the number of small investors identified and recommended as eligible for compensation has gone up to 60,941. The interim reports had named 341 dubious financial companies in the three interim reports for duping small investors.

The state government had, in November 2014, announced the return of money to small and genuine investors based on the suggestions of the judicial commission. In the same month, the government had announced that Rs 300 crore had been kept aside for a corpus fund for payment of compensation to the duped investors.

The interim reports revealed how the focus of the judicial commission had shifted to identification of genuine small investors with the state government enlarging its scope. While proceeding first to answer one of the references regarding identification of small investors, the commission had persuaded some of the scam-tinted companies to return the invested amount, and 1,206 investors had, so far, been paid back their money by the firms, the sources said.