MUMBAI: Around 13 lakh Investors who are victims of the Samruddha Jeevan Multi-State Multi-Purpose Co-Operative Society’s alleged chit fund scam worth Rs 3,500 crore, are yet to get even a single paisa as a refund even though the kingpin was arrested in 2015. 

Mahesh Kisan Motewar, the alleged kingpin who is the chairman and managing director of the scam-tainted finance company was arrested in 2015 and while he is said to be enjoying a comfortable life in jail, the 13 lakh investors of the alleged chit fund scam some of who lost their entire lives’ savings are living in despair.

"We had invested all our retirement funds in this society, and are forced to live like beggars, but despite the efforts of all government regulators as well as investigating agencies we have not got a single penny, we hear that Motewar is living very comfortably in jail getting all the facilities," 66 years old Rane couple said.

"Nobody knows why exactly government agencies are sleeping or if their palms have been greased to ensure their silence. The fact is that there has been absolutely zero progress in refunding victims of any of the chit fund fraud cases investigated since 2012, despite arrests of several alleged kingpins," said Mukesh Pali Rathod another investor who lost his money in the Samruddha scam.

The present central government has displayed extremely high levels of energy in unleashing its investigative agencies after its political rivals and other targets have failed to get the Central Bureau of Investigation or other agencies to ensure that victims of finance company scams are refunded.

The amazing thing is that investigating agencies have attached the properties of the alleged kingpins, but none of these properties have been auctioned in order to refund the looted investors. Neither the government nor its investigating agencies seem to be bothered about refunding the savings of 13 lakh investors.

In September 2020, the CID had stated that so far properties worth Rs 233.33 crore have been attached and the process is on to seize more property from the accused, but it is still a mystery why none of the cheated investors have received even a single paisa as a refund.

Where did the money go and what did it finance? Nobody knows for sure, but here are a few clues. To begin with, Mahesh Kisan Motewar had only two wives. His first wife was Leena Motewar, while his second wife is Vaishali Motewar, besides an alleged girlfriend called Supriya Vasant Kanase, who used to be the CEO of his 24-hour Marathi TV news channels.  

His second wife Vaishali Motewar was arrested by the Maharashtra state criminal investigation department (CID) in connection with the controversial multi-crore collective investment scheme fraud. Her arrest was in response to a First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Chaturshrungi police station against Mahesh Motewar, his first wife Leena and an employee Rajendra Bhandare.

Interestingly, Mahesh’s first wife Leena had allegedly even employed a contract killer to murder his alleged girlfriend Supriya Vasant Kanase, who was also CEO of his 24-hours Marathi TV news channel called Live India TV and Mi Marathi.

Even more interestingly, one of Maharashtra’s top journalists who is a present Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Kumar Ketkar used to be one of the directors on the board of the company run by Mahesh Motewar. Ketkar had even interviewed Motewar on topics ranging from ‘how to achieve success’ and ‘motivation’.