Hyderabad: To safeguard the interests of depositors, the Andhra Pradesh government has attached the movable properties of Akshaya Gold & Farms and Villas. Principal Secretary of the Home department of the AP government, A.R. Anuradha, issued orders to this effect on Monday. Additional director general of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) stated that Munagapati Sudhakar Rao and others established Akshaya Gold Farms and Villas at Ongole on November 5, 2007.
The company collected deposits promising a high rate of interest or buying them land. The money was never returned to the depositors, nor were plots registered in their names as promised. After the depositors complained, 27 cases were registered at various police stations in Prakasam, Kurnool. Anantapur, Guntur (urban & rural), Krishna, West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts. All these cases were subsequently taken over by the CID for investigation.
The investigation by the CID revealed that the accused enrolled members as marketing executives in a chain link/pyramid system where each member had to enrol others down the line. The chain link breaks when it reaches saturation point and at this stage only the originators of the scheme and those who joined in the early stages benefit. Those who joined at later stages lose their investment.
The CID investigation clearly revealed that the accused and other directors and marketing executives of Akshaya Gold Company deliberately cheated the public by collecting Rs 330 crore as deposits from around 19 lakh depositors.Twenty-three persons have been named as accused in the 27 cases registered and chargesheets filed in 24. Three other cases are under investigation. The CID investigation alleges that the accused acquired 2,455.18 acres of land, which if sold at the current market price, will yield around Rs 100 crore. The company's bank balance of Rs 10.15 crore has been frozen. The company has assets of around Rs 110.15 crore and liabilities to the public of about Rs 330 crore.
It is the CID's contention that the company is not in a position to return or refund the deposits to the public, and there is every possibility of diversion of funds and other assets to the names of the kith and kin and benamis or proxies of the management of the company. The state government has attached certain immovable and movable properties of the company in the past and the CID investigation showed the company had more movable properties. So on the request of the CID, the state government has issued orders for attachment of these movable properties too. The recent attached properties are 23 computer CPUs, 2 printers, 9 chairs and one big size printing machine.
