Bhubaneswar, December 22: Maintaining that the State Government is committed to fulfill the promises made in its election manifesto, BJP Odisha unit president Manmohan Samal on Monday said that five lakh more duped chit fund investors will get the refunds by January 31, 2026.

“The BJP, in its election manifesto, promised the people of Odisha to refund money lost in chit fund scams. The State Government has already refunded money to thousands of duped investors. Meanwhile, the State Government has identified five lakh more small depositors and they will get the refunds by January 31, 2026,” Samal told media persons here.

Samal said that the big depositors will also get the refunds.

“People had invested their hard-earned money in various chit fund companies but they were duped. Now. all the eligible beneficiaries affected by chit funds scam will get their money back. Small depositors will get the refunds first. Big depositors will also get the refunds in a phased manner,” asserted Samal.

In July this year, Samal said that the State Government has already refunded Rs 47 crore to 1.26 lakh chit fund depositors in a year.

According to reports, about 70 lakh people in Odisha were reportedly deceived by around 450 Ponzi companies. Following a Supreme Court directive in May 2014, the CBI investigated 44 companies, including the Kolkata-based Saradha Group and Odisha-based Seashore and Artha Tatwa groups.

Prior to the 2014 general elections, the then Naveen Patnaik Government set up a judicial commission and created a Rs 300 crore corpus fund to compensate affected small depositors. The commission, led by Justice M M Das, identified a large number of small depositors who lost Rs 10,000 or less. The commission's interim report to the State Government recommended refund for 4,97,844 small investors while identifying over 450 companies responsible for the chit fund scam.