Cuttack, May 2: A PIL has been filed in Orissa High Court for adoption of plea-bargaining by the designated courts for speedy disposal of cases and return of money to the investors, who had been duped by Ponzi firms.
Plea-bargaining is a devise, provided under the Code of Criminal Procedure, to ensure that victims receive acceptable justice within reasonable time. The procedure involves a negotiation, in which the accused agrees to plead guilty in exchange of lesser punishment. As part of the process both accused and prosecution can work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case, which may include giving compensation to the victim with the approval of the court.
Surendranath Acharya, 75, and eight other purported victims of the scam from Kendrapara filed the PIL more than one-and-a-half years after the state government had created a law to protect the investors' interest.
Since the multi-crore scam broke in 2011, the economic offences wing of the state CID, Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Police and some district superintendents of police have attached movable and immovable properties of 14 deposit collection companies running into a few thousand crores rupees under the Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishment) Act that was made into a law in August 2013.
Under the act, four designated courts in Balasore, Berhampur, Cuttack and Sambalpur are supposed to order sale of the attached property by public auction and realise sale proceeds for distribution among victims of the scam.
But with things moving at a slow pace, there is a growing hopelessness and apprehension among the victims now that they may never get their money back. "Among them, hundreds are dead," the PIL alleged, seeking the court's direction to the designated courts to adopt the plea-bargaining procedure "to end the suffering of the victims".
In October last year, the state government had created a Rs 300-crore corpus fund for distribution among the scam victims. "As it appears, it is only a display board," the petition alleged while seeking act amendment or insertion of executive instructions to supplement the act.
