Will amend the law to discourage fraudulent schemes, says Maharashtra CM

Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday informed the Legislative Council that the state could make amendments to the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act, 1999

Mumbai

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and BJP leader Pasha Patel during Maharashtra State Assembly at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai on Wednesday. (HT Photo)

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday informed the Legislative Council that the state could make amendments to the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act, 1999 to keep a check on companies that come up with fraudulent schemes to dupe investors.

Fadnavis was responding to a Calling Attention motion moved over the company Pancard Clubs Pvt, which allegedly duped 51 lakh investors in the country between 2002 and 2014.

The Calling Action motion was moved by legislator Satej Patil to determined the status of the action taken by the state government against the promoters of the company. According to Patil, the Prabhadevi-based company has duped over 35 lakh investors in Maharashtra.

The Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWPI) legislator, Jayant Patil’s, inquired if the state government is formulating any law or strengthening existing laws to prevent such companies from mushrooming and fleeing with people’s hard-earned money.

In response, Fadnavis said, “We will see if amendments can be made to the existing MPID Act to bring such companies under its ambit.”

“The agencies are in the process of liquidating the assets of the company and will soon repay the investors,” Fadnavis said.

The company mobilised over Rs7,000 crores through illegal collective investment schemes (CIS) from 51,55,516 investors from the years 2002-03 to 2013-14 through its various holiday schemes.