Chit fund cheats customers in Suryapet

Suryapet: A chit fund trader betrayed several hundreds of customers and fled away with Rs 2 crores. This incident came to light on Friday in Suryapet town after the victims staged dharna before the chit fund office.According to sources, Kommu Venkateshwarlu of Namavaram of Mothey mandal has been running a financial company in the name of Sri Venkatalaxmi Chit Fund near Aepur bus stand in Suryapet town for the past ten years.

As a part of business, he has been running daily chits and monthly chits. In the beginning, he was also lending loans with 5 per cent interest loans against mortgage of assets. After getting good reputation among the public, he changed his stand and invited investments from innocent villagers by offering good returns in short periods. Believing his words, many people from several villages invested their money in some lakhs. As Venkateshwarlu diverted the money for other purposes, he faced financial problems.

By mortgaging his house, he got loan for huge amount from a bank and as he did not repay it, the bank seized his house. For the last few months, he has not been paying interest to investors. To mislead the investors, he gave promissory notes and post dated cheques. Some of the cheques issued by him were bounced due to lack of funds in his accounts at the banks. Due to pressure from investors for repayment, Venkateshwarlu, along with family members, left the town on Friday morning.

Knowing the information, large numbers of victims arrive at the chit fund office and staged dharna seeking justice. According to the sources, the number of victims of the chit fund firm is nearly 1500. Suryapet one town police lodged a complaint after receiving complaints from some victims. Meanwhile District SP Parimala requested all the victims to lodge the complaint at Suryapet town and assured justice to them.