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Law-enforcing agencies need to
be empowered to take criminal cases to logical end
M V Syam Sundar
The other day the High Court at Hyderabad
was annoyed at the progress of investigation into the misdeeds of real estate
company AgriGold which has collected deposits worth about Rs 7,000 crore from
millions of customers throughout several States in the name of real estate and
failed to repay the deposits. The High Court had even called for the presence
of the AgriGold chairman Avvas Venkata Rama Rao and the Additional Director
General of Police Dwaraka Tirumala Rao in the court to explain the delay in repaying
the deposits to the customers.
AgriGold is not the first case and it is
not going to be the last in cheating the gullible in the name of selling products,
services, real estate and what not. It is apt to recall that Subroto Roy, chief
of Sahara International, is still behind the bars for not returning the
deposits worth about Rs 40,000 crore to the depositors. Surprisingly, the
Andhra Pradesh CID police did not take Avvas Venkata Rama Rao even into custody
let alone arrest and send him to jail for reasons better known to them.
The then superintendent of police of West
Godavari district, Dr Kolli Raghuram Reddy, filed a criminal case against
AgriGold on the charges of illegally collecting deposits against rules of the
RBI. The then Nellore SP Senthil Kumar had also filed criminal case against it.
However, at the time the West Godavari police are raiding the offices of
AgriGold and seizing the records, the mysterious forces acted in lightning
speed and transferred the case to the AP CID. The rest is history. It is really
mysterious as to who was the ‘real estate political personality’ that acted
swiftly to transfer both the SPs. The case would have gone into the cold
storage forever but for the proactive judiciary that has taken the case into
its hands.
In spite of the criminal cases filed
against AgriGold, the company is doing its business without any hindrance.
Several of its agents and the customers who were in deep despair had even
committed suicide. Still there is no serious action against the company but for
the occasional statements by the politicians that justice would be done to the
depositors.
Before AgriGold, there was Golden Forest
Ltd which collected Rs 2000 crore in 1990s and disappeared without a trace
after criminal cases were filed. Noticeably that AgriGold chief Rama Rao worked
for Golden Forest before he started his own venture.
Pearl Agro, popularly known as PACL, also collected
deposits worth Rs 40,000 crore from public. Till the judiciary took initiative,
there was no police action despite the plethora of complaints against it. Till
to date, the company did not return deposits though the SEBI ordered their
refund.
A number of companies have cheated and have
been cheating the gullible and decamped with thousands of crores of rupees. For
instance, Speakasia, the Singapore-based online service company duped people
for Rs 3,000 crore. The Andhra Pradesh CID busted the case following a
complaint lodged by an NGO, Corporate Frauds Watch. However, the money could
not be traced by them. It is the Delhi police who pursued the case and tracked
the criminals who finally returned with the booty and started real estate
business at Darjeeling.
A number of companies like NMart, Gemini
Techno, V-Can Network shut shop long back and nothing is heard about the
criminal cases filed against them. Not surprisingly, some of these companies
started legitimate businesses with the ill-gotten money hoodwinking the
law-enforcing agencies.
Apart from these, there are a number of
direct selling companies which are still cheating people and amassing enormous
wealth. Amway India, Herbalife, Tupperware, Forever Living Products and other
members of Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) have blatantly been
demanding legislations in their favour to continue their fraudulent business
activities. It is apt to recall here that Andhra Pradesh High Court in its
judgement in 2006 categorically stated that the business model of Amway is
illegal. However, the adamant company still pleads for a separate legislation
in support of its illegal business model.
The former head of Amway India and four others
did not turn up the other at the criminal court. The magistrate was serious and
ordered all the accused to be present in the court by next hearing. This is the
scant respect these people have for our judicial system. It is apt to mention
here that the Enforcement Directorate has served notice to Amway India for
illegally siphoning out Rs 2,000 crore from the country to the USA. However,
nothing is heard about it later.
It is high time the law-enforcing agencies were
empowered to pursue the criminal cases without political interference and the
ill-gotten wealth should be confiscated.
