One Pied Piper, 24 lakh investors and 11 states

This story started 17 years ago when a clerk in the Union Territory’s Hospitality Department decided to quit. It was the first step Rak...

This story started 17 years ago when a clerk in the Union Territory’s Hospitality Department decided to quit. It was the first step Rakesh Kant Syal took to build an empire by peddling dreams called Golden Forest India Limited (GFIL). A record 24-lakh people believed in him, including a long list of widows and handicapped persons from Bhubaneshwar.

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They dreamt that he would double their money in three-and-half years, increase it 10-fold in 10 years, and 222 times in 25 years. He took their money and he took their land. According to the Punjab Vigilance Department, he hived off more than Rs 3,000 crore.

They got nothing.

TALE OF TWO INVESTORS

G A Malik of Srinagar rues the day he made the decision: ‘‘The son of one of my friends was an agent. He invested his own money as well as motivated others to offer deposits,’’ Malik says.

Today, the agent, Malik Zubair Anjum, is in even bigger trouble with militants reportedly hounding him to return the money. ‘‘We are attempting to settle on the principal amount and have paid about Rs 2 lakh after liquidating our own assets,’’ says Anjum.

At Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, Updesh Kumar Verma has just one aim in life: To take the cases against Syal to a logical end. ‘‘I had joined the company as Chief Development Officer hoping to become a director one day. My relatives and friend have invested Rs 14 lakh and have little hope to get the money back.’’ Verma says that he had become suspicious about the functioning of the company soon after the Income Tax Department and SEBI started looking into their functioning.

‘‘We had questioned Syal to clear our doubts, but he sold another dream saying soon they would be launching Golden Bank besides Golden Times newspaper. At the next meeting, the Syals told us to motivate investors to reinvest half the maturity amount into its schemes,’’ he says. By now, he knew it was all a bunch of lies.

Also read: Dream plantations that never bore fruit

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He got a helicopter to fly him from his house to office, all within Chandigarh. He got thousands of acres of land in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. He gave his family and relatives the Big Punjab Dream of a life in London.

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Today, Syal’s lavish lifestyle is slightly toned down. He is in Model Jail in Chandigarh along with wife Neena Syal, father Amrit Lal Syal, brother Rajesh Syal and sister Pamella Syal facing trial in cases ranging from bouncing of cheques to fraud.

The luxuries flow regardless. The ambulance that transported him for a hip joint replacement was none less than a rock star’s coach: AC, a bed, the works. Cops salute him when he comes out of the jail.

There is, well, little hope for investors. No liquidator has been appointed so far. The Supreme Court, the Mumbai and Punjab and Haryana high courts are sorting out the winding-up petition.

The Uttaranchal Government had already started action against GFIL under the Land Ceiling Act and has made it clear that no compensation would be granted to the company. Of course, Syal wants to settle, says his counsel Anil Sharma.