Does RTI hold answers to Ponzi victims’ woes ?

DNA: Ahmedabad: Friday, June 08, 2012.

After losing their money to Ponzi scamsters’ dubious schemes and not satisfied with the way police is handling their grievances, hundreds of Ponzi scheme victims across Gujarat met at Sardarbaug in Ahmedabad on Wednesday to give their angst a united voice. These victims will now use Right To Information (RTI) to track police investigations on their complaints as they now aim to force cops to book these thugs.

Over 100 representatives of such victims as well as many victims themselves from different parts of the state were present on the occasion. Expressing their woes on how they were cheated by fake investment companies, the victims claimed that RTI would help them know the status of the FIRs they had filed.

Surprisingly, the receipts these victims had received from the fraudulent companies during the transactions also show 2-3 ‘zeroes’ eliminated from the actual amount. Not a single receipt shows the correct amount. Hence, the victims do not have any written document to claim their money. However, the coordinator of the meet and an RTI activist, Bharatsinh Jhala said that the protest will give a voice to the victims. At least, they will be able to know the status of their FIR’s through the RTIs, he said.

The protest was organised by three NGOs, namely Cranti, Janhith and Vadodara Jagrut Sankalan.“More than Rs15 crore is what these victims have lost in the Ponzi schemes floated by fraud companies like FK & Sons, KSP Investments, Aelia Enterprises and Imtsons Investments were the main participants in the trade,” said KN Saiyyed, a committee member.

A retired senior official from the state legal department, SK Kranti said, “We will now teach the victims how to file RTI applications against the FIR’s they had filed with the police. If there is no response, fresh RTIs will be filed against the police officers concerned.”

Among the protesters there were also sub agents who took money from farmers, shop keepers, villagers etc and gave it to the fake investment companies for higher profits. “I lost Rs88 lakh in the scheme. A 17% profit was promised to me and therefore I borrowed amounts from 30 people,” said Sayid Tabassum, a resident of Baroda who filed a complaint a year ago.