Searches at 58 places in 2 states
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted searches at 58 places across Maharashtra and Odisha in connection with a couple of cases of economic crimes registered with them last year against Samrudha Jeewan Group of companies.
According to the CBI, a couple of FIRs had been registered with them last year against directors and officials of Samrudha and its sister firms. FIRs had been registered against Mahesh Kishan Motewar and his wife, Leena Motewar, both directors of Samrudha as well as against Samrudha officials including Santosh Paigude, Rajendra Pandurang and Sonali Botkulwar. However, none of the accused has been arrested yet.
CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh told The Asian Age, “The firm did not have Reserve Bank of India (RBI) compliance. This is one of the chit fund companies that allegedly collected money from several people without having any valid legal authority (RBI).”
Several CBI teams carried out searches of office premises of Samrudha and its sister companies as well as residential premises of the accused including directors and officials of the company, suspects and others related to the case.
The raids were conducted at about 40 locations in Pune, at some places in Nashik, Aurangabad, Solapur, and at two places in Orissa. Singh confirmed that they managed to seize a lot of incriminating documents.
Meanwhile, in a separate chit fund case, the CBI secured a conviction. The accused, Shri Gouri Shankar Parida, then Managing Director of Balasore & Eshore Developers Limited, Balasore, Odisha, was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of '72,000. This is the first trial which was completed in the chit fund cases being investigated by CBI and which ended in conviction. It had registered this case on May 5, 2014 on a 2013 SC order relating to the involvement of Eshore Group of Companies in the chit fund scam pertaining to Odisha.
