Vijayawada: The AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) has raided seven branches of Margadarsi Chit Funds as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged law violations relating to diversion of funds by the firm to speculative markets.
Sleuths visited the MCFPL branches in Seethammapeta in Visakhapatnam city, the ones near Syamala Theatre in Rajamahendravaram and Narasingaraopeta, Eluru as also Labbipet in Vijayawada, Arundalpet in Guntur, one near Sattenapalli Road in Narasaraopet and the one in Lakshmi Nagar in Anantapur.
They verified the books of accounts and several documents including the ones in electronic format pertaining to the case and scrutinised them, according to a statement from APCID additional director general of police N. Sanjay.
The CID registered seven FIRs so far against the promoters of MCFPL, including its chairman Ramoji Rao, managing director Sailaja Kiran and also on several branch managers, on the company itself and on the principal auditor, for violation of several provisions of the Chit Fund Act. Both the chairman and MD were grilled by the AP CID teams led by Amit Bardar at their residence in Hyderabad recently.
The APCID says it found evidence of a series of illegal activities like money laundering, siphoning off of funds and corporate frauds, benami transactions and income tax evasion. Based on these, several central agencies have been alerted for timely action against the MCFPL to curb the chit fund firm’s illegal activities.
The AP CID says it is trying to protect the interests of the chit fund subscribers and found fault with the MCFPL for diversion of their funds at will by placing the interests of the subscribers at risk.
The Margadarsi Group has 108 branches in four states including AP, TS, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Of these, 37 are located in AP. It has 1.04 lakh subscribers in AP, and the number of chit groups is 2,351 with annual turnover in both AP and TS put together at '9,677 crore in 2021-22.
