Chennai: “For the first time in 14 years, we now have some reason to smile. Perhaps we will get back our money, thanks to this benevolent order from the Supreme Court”, said Satish Uvaraj, who runs an electrical equipment shop at Puducherry. He was referring to the Apex Court's recent order setting aside the Madras high court decision quashing the criminal proceedings against S. Natarajan, now a director in the Sriram Group, in the 2004 high-profile ponzi scam involving the now-defunct PNL Nidhi Ltd, which allegedly had collected Rs 68.50 crore from about 13,000 investors and defaulted in repayment.
The Madras high court had quashed the criminal proceedings against Natrajan holding that the default in repayments happened in 2004 whereas he had left PNL Nidhi four years earlier. Setting aside this HC order, the Apex Court bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha noted that during the period when Natarajan was a director of PNL Nidhi Ltd, its funds were diverted in different corporate entities, which resulted in the default of repayments to the depositors.
The SC also observed that Natarajan had held ‘controlling interest’ in a private company, Calfin Credit Holdings Pondicherry Limited (CCHPL), Chennai, which was one of the beneficiaries of the fund diversion.
“This order from the Supreme Court will now make it possible for us to have this case reopened by the crime branch CID police in Puducherry. We will move the Madras high court to speed up the process. Most of the depositors were pensioners. More than 200 of them have died while this case dragged on, many because they had no money to pay for medical expenses. Some families were forced to call off marriages”, said Satish Uvaraj, who is the secretary of PNL investors’ association fighting the case in the courts.
His father Uvaraj died six months back, very much depressed that his hard-earned money was lost in the scam.
“Now we hope that the police and the courts will soon deliver us justice; enable us to get back our investments with at least the minimum interest allowed by nationalized banks for these 14 years”, Satish said.
