CRB investment scam probed

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has launched an investigation into the CRB group of companies which allegedly defrauded its small investors of over Rs 1890000000. Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde ordered the high-level inquiry under the supervision of joint commissioner of police (Crime) R S Sharma, president of Investors Grievances Forum (IGF) and MLA Kirit Somaiya told Express Newsline on Tuesday. Hundreds of depositors thronged the EOW office on Tuesday afternoon to lodge complaints against CRB Capital Markets and its managing director, C R Bhansali. The depositors, mostly retired employees, demanded that their investments in CRB be returned immediately. The deposits varied from Rs 15,000 to Rs 400000.B K Kalra, who retired from BEST last year, deposited Rs 290,000 with CRB in its monthly pension scheme from his provident fund and other savings thinking he would be assured of a regular income for the rest of his life. “I am left with no savings. It is difficult for me to survive the next few months, leave alone a few years, of my retired life,” he said. “An agent had assured me that it was a good company for fixed deposits (FDs),” he added. “I deposited a large sum of my hard-earned savings in CRB thinking it would take care of my rest of retired life. But the future seems very bleak,” said Theresa Correa, a widow. Another glaring case is the Zaiwalla family. Rattan and Sillnoo, both retired, deposited Rs 30,000 on the assurance that they would be receiving a regular monthly income, but the post-dated cheques have bounced, they complained. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had recently barred the CRB Mutual Funds from floating new schemes before clearing up its account books. The State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have also refused to honour interest warrants issued by the CRB. Meanwhile, CRB Capital Markets in a circular issued to its depositors has requested them to claim new warrants from its FD division by surrendering the existing interest warrants, which had bounced, payable at par at the two banks. The IGF charged that the Reserve Bank of India had granted a bank licence to CRB in spite of the group coming under cloud. However, the EOW when contacted could not confirm whether a formal case of fraud has been registered against the group. Efforts to contact the newly-appointed deputy commissioner of the EOW D D Padsalgikar proved to be futile.