more-in MADURAI For M. Meenakshi, 34, of Oormelazhagiyan near Tenkasi, meeting the educational expenses of her three daughters was always a matter of concern. She thought that making a recurring deposit of ?500 a month with a finance company for over five years would of great help while sending her eldest daughter to college. She had been depositing money till her daughter came to Plus Two. However, her plan went awry when the Madurai-based finance company, Blessing Agro Farm India Limited, failed to return ?42,500 on maturity of her recurring deposit. “I have been walking to the Tenkasi branch office of the finance company since September last in vain,” she said. Like Ms. Meenakshi, some 150 men and women from Tirunelveli and Virudhunagar districts, who had paid their money at the company’s Tenkasi office, came to the office of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here on Monday to lodge complaints. A man, P. Murugar, who came to her village to sell furniture on instalment basis, introduced the investment scheme to her, Ms. Meenakshi said, adding: “He told me that the company was giving high interest rate.” However, Mr. Murugar said he himself fell prey to the company’s ‘attractive schemes’. The Tenkasi office had been functioning since 2007 and the company had been repaying depositors till last year, he said. The agents said the company falsely claimed that it was an authorised agent for Life Insurance Corporation. One of the depositors, M. Mariappan, who runs a petty shop, said he believed in the assurance given by the agent as “the company was associated with LIC”. He deposited ?600 for 14 months and then stopped further payment as advised by his agent after the company defaulted on repayment, he added. The depositors said the company had initially claimed that the money got locked in banks due to demonetisation and hence it could not repay to them. K. Balasubramanian, an agent, said the Tenkasi branch owed at least ?34 crore to 11,000 depositors. I. Selvaraj, another agent, said most of the depositors were from economically poor background. “When we approach the company for repayment, it says only land sites could be given as returns. Those sites are in remote areas and not worth the deposit amounts,” he complained. Another agent, A. Ashok Kumar (30), claimed that the company put pressure on depositors by imposing a fine for every late payment of dues and promising bonus for timely payment at the time of maturity. It also withheld huge amounts if depositors withdrew their money before completing the term. An EOW officer said they had registered a case in this connection two weeks back. They would register further cases if depositors came with original documents.

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