Cuttack, Jan. 19: The Justice Madan Mohan Das Commission, which is probing the deposit collection scam, has set February 20 as the deadline for investors and depositors in the Golden Land Developers Group of Companies to submit affidavits for refund of their investments.

The commission has asked investors to submit affidavits with details of their investments at the group's branch offices in Balugaon, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Bhanjanagar, Parlakhemundi and Bhawanipatna.

"We have invited affidavits following Orissa High Court's January 4 order that asked the commission to identify depositors or investors of Golden Land Developers Limited and submit a report," commission secretary Devraj Rout said.

"The high court has asked us to submit a report within two months with the list of depositors and the amount deposited by each," Rout said.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had appointed the panel in 2013 following pressure from the Opposition for the spate of cheating cases involving deposit collection firms.

It was asked to identify the individuals and entities that had collected public deposits without authorisation and look into the involvement of influential persons, bureaucrats and other sections of the society in protecting and promoting such activities. Later, the commission was assigned the additional job of identifying genuine and small investors, who had been affected by the scam and were eligible for compensation on the basis of the over 8.7 lakh affidavits received.