After CM’s intervention, DC Hailakandi meets Circle Officer, SP; “We are identifying plots of land that the accused owns to repay the 45 complainants” Rohan Kumar Jha

Deputy Commissioners, Superintendent of Police are all transferable jobs. The officers get transferred every now and then to be replaced by new ones. Hailakandi district has a new formation that has to deal with an old case. In 2019, around 45 residents of Hailakandi’s Manipur Garden complained that the Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, Manipur branch had scammed them. Police took action and arrested the accused. They were forwarded to the court and the legal course was followed. However, the beneficiaries did not get the money that they invested.

After running from pillar to post for help, as the last resort, Mousumi Sharmacharjee, stood outside Assam University for hours to meet the chief minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. “He is my last hope,” she said. The chief minister stopped on his way, met the girl, and received the memorandum. “I will look into this and you will have a reply,” said the chief minister.

He lived up to his words. Himanta Biswa Sarma has messaged the deputy commissioner of Hailakandi, Rohan Kumar Jha to look into the matter. Immediately, the deputy commissioner called for a meeting with the Circle Officer and Superintendent of Police to find a solution to the problem.

“We had a meeting on Monday and we will meet again on January 27 to discuss the matter. It is an old case and after discussing the matter with the SP and other officers, we have figured that arresting or detaining the accused will not bring any help to the 45 complainants. So, we are identifying the plots of land that the accused owns and by selling those plots, we can return the money to the complainants,” said DC Rohan Kumar Jha while speaking with Barak Bulletin.

He added, “The bank officials were also involved in the meeting and they too agreed to this logical off the court solution. The bank officials will be a part of the meeting on February 27 and once the Police investigation gets over, we can move to the next step. By the end of February, we expect to get a result.”

Superintendent of Police Gaurav Upadhyay said that the investigation is on and the Police is ascertaining the facts. “It is an old case and the bank managers and others involved were arrested too. However, that did not help in getting the money back. This time, we are trying to identify a logical solution to this,” added Upadhyay.

For the freshers, around 45 residents of the area invested a cumulative Rs 76 lakh to open fixed deposit accounts in Assam Gramin Vikash Bank. According to Mousumi Sharmacharjee’s memorandum, they were promised by the bank’s branch manager Manilal Chauhan that their investment will double in 10 years. Chauhan directed the customers to Surya Dhar who they later got to know was just a contractual employee. Sharmacharjee’s father, who is an idol maker by profession invested Rs 10 lakh – his hard-earned savings.

After 10 years that is the maturity period, when they went to the bank, they were told that the Fixed Deposit Certificates are all fake and the money was never deposited to the bank.