Victims of AgriGold started protest in Hyderabad

Members of the ‘AgriGold Customers and Agents Welfare Association’ (ACAWA) who embarked on a two-daylong protest in the city on Wednesday requested the intervention of the State government in attaching the assets of AgriGold in order to repay depositors’ money amounting to approximately Rs 300 crore. Scores of victims of AgriGold scam gathered at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park for a relay hunger strike.

The protestors demanded that the State government intervene, alleging that over a hundred victims had committed suicide in the last four years owing to non-closure of the case. S Satyavati, a depositor from Khammam district, said, “We deposited Rs 8 lakh in AgriGold. The money was meant for my children’s education and suddenly AgriGold turned out to be a fraud company. We are a middle-class family and do not have financial resources to sustain ourselves.” She pointed out that the Andhra Pradesh government had released Rs 250 crore for AgriGold victims. “We request Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to do justice for AgriGold victims here,” said Satyavati. Speaking to Express, All India Customers and Agents Welfare Association president A Ramesh Babu said, “AgriGold was a multi-crore scam in which some 32 lakh people from eight States have lost Rs 7,500 crore.”

He said 243 depositors from the two Telugu States had lost their lives in the aftermath of the scam and the Andhra Pradesh government washed its hands off by sanctioning Rs 250 crore to victims. “The Telangana government should attach 1,200 acres of properties of AgriGold and serve justice to victims,” he said and demanded that the kin of deceased depositors and agents of AgriGold be paid ex-gratia.