Adarsh Credit: Chhattisgarh HC directs govt to repay petitioners within 60 days

Hearing the petition filed by several investors of the beleaguered Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society, the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur has ordered the union government and the liquidator to repay the money of petitioners within 60 days, according to a delayed news coming to Indian Cooperative desk.

The order of the court reads, “The Union Government of India and H S Patel, Liquidator, Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society are directed to take a decision on the application which the petitioners have filed seeking for release of the amount which is lying with the Registrar, Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society which was deposited by the petitioners under different schemes and heads”.

“It is expected that the authorities would take a decision at the earliest preferably within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order purely in accordance with rules and guidelines governing the field”, according to the court order.

Several petitioners from Raipur and Bilaspur had filed the petition in the high court through Advocate Vivek Kumar Agarwal.

The petition filed by the investors reads, “They are investing the money in the society since 2015 and the society was operational in almost all the districts of Chhattisgarh. The interest on the amount was high which forced us to deposit our hard-earned savings”.

“In 2019, the branches of the society were suddenly closed. Due to this the amount of all the investors got stuck in the society. The government has appointed the liquidator in the society but the liquidator has failed to get the money back”, the filed petition reads.

Earlier, the investors of the beleaguered cooperative Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society had written a letter to the Prime Minister to the Union Agriculture Minister to the Union Finance Minister and other concerned authorities but the efforts of investors went in vain.

H S Patel, the man who is the liquidator of the beleaguered Adarsh Credit Co-operative, said due to the ED probe he is not able to do justice to the victims. Because of account freezes and properties attached by several probe agencies, I find it difficult to pay back the money of gullible investors. The Enforcement Directorate and other probe agencies have attached properties and frozen accounts of the society.

It bears recall that last year in October, the ED had attached the properties worth Rs 1,489 crore of Adarsh Credit Co-op Society.

Mukesh Modi the founder chairman of Adarsh Credit Co-op and his family members are alleged to have run Ponzi schemes and floated several fake companies to which they diverted Rs 8400 crore. Twenty lakh people invested Rs 14,682 crore over 8 years in Adarsh credit society.