Hundreds of Ponzi scam victims in Bengaluru, mostly Muslims, who have been duped by infamous ‘halal’ schemes like Ambidant, Ajmera and others and are still awaiting their refunds, have decided to make their displeasure known by not voting for any of the mainstream political parties.
They have decided not to cast their votes in favour of BJP, Congress-JD(S) candidates as they feel these parties haven’t done anything to help them, or bring the scamsters to justice. Instead, they said they will unitedly vote for independent candidates or NOTA (none of the above) in the Lok Sabha elections.
Abid Ali, a victim of Ambidant, said, “We want to send out a strong message to all political parties that we are hugely disappointed. The government should have expedited the redistribution of funds that have been seized from these companies. So far nothing has been done from the government’s side or from the Opposition. So we have decided to vote for NOTA. And we are not a small number, we are almost 50,000 families across Karnataka.”
The victims have united under the banner ‘First Refund, Then Vote’ and have organised demonstrations over the past month leading up to the elections. One such demonstration was held in Bengaluru’s Town Hall on Saturday.
Narendra Kumar of Lancha Mukta Karnataka (bribe-free Karnataka), one of the leading organisers of the movement, said, “50,000 Muslim families were cheated by 25-plus ponzi companies, they lost their life-time savings worth Rs 3000 crore. As none of the political parties have done anything so far, the frustrated victims have decided to vote for Non-JCB {JD(S), Congress & BJP} candidates or choose NOTA button.”
He added, “Pehle Refund, Fir Vote’ is our demand, as we are staring at a bleak future, after losing our life-time savings. We lost members to disease and divorce, sisters can’t get married and our parents may depart painfully, all due to lack of money. The root cause is the painfully slow investigation process and delays in government permissions to sell seized properties and distribute the money to us.”
One of the protestors said, “While there has been no significant response from the Congress and JD(S), the BJP had earlier told them that they don’t want to be seen as helping Muslims as that might risk losing them their Hindu vote bank.”
Ambidant, which is the biggest of these scams, had come to light after the arrest of former minister and tainted mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy in connection with the case.
The companies are being probed by the Central Crime Branch, and the state Revenue Department has started a process of recovering investors’ money in accordance with the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors Act.