After his retirement in 1996, Iyengar invested most of his hard-earned money in plantation companies promising lucrative returns. And he lost nearly all of it.

``I am up for sale,'' says Iyengar, with disappointment writ large on face. From a palatial apartment while in service to a flat taken on rent, the loss has taken a heavy toll on him and his family. Private tuitions taken by Iyengar's wife is the only source of income for the family to make ends meet.

So it was a DTC bus and not an air-conditioned car that drove Iyengar from his house at Mehrauli Road to Bhikaiji Cama Bhavan Sunday morning to attend a meeting of investors of Anubhav Group of Companies.

About 100 investors struggling to recovertheir money from the company had gathered at the building. The company has gone bankrupt and so have the investors.

Thus, the venue for the meeting was not a hall, not even a meeting room, just the corridors of Bhikaiji Cama Bhavan. A decent crowd, most of it once high-flying, adjusted itself in the staircase of the building.

``There is no money. Whatever the association has collected from the troubled investors, is being used for litigations. Hence office corridors on Sundays costs nothing and we can save the same money for litigation work,'' explained R Sarin.

Sarin is honorary secretary of the `Anubhav Investors' Association' formed by local investors in the capital early this year. Ever since, the list of membership has been constantly growing, from a few initially to 480 till date.

There are an estimated 4,000 people in north India who have invested money in various schemes, especially the plantation schemes, of the Anubhav Group of Companies, says Col B K Rai (retd), president of theassociation.

While cities like Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai (where the head office of the company is located) reacted instantly after the company broke financially in the middle of last year, investors in Delhi were rather slow to respond.

``This is simply why a few retired persons like us took the initiative and started networking with the affected people in the Capital and in the adjoining states,''says Sarin.

From Rs 70,000 in Sarin's case and Rs 10 lakh for S C Mohan to several lakhs in some cases, the aggregate amount invested by investors from Delhi and other northern states is expected to run into a few crores.

Significantly, from the information gathered by the association, 70 per cent of the investors are senior citizens. More shocking is the fact that most of them have invested almost their entire retirement benefits in the fixed deposit and other schemes.

Quite evidently, the gathering on Sunday comprised mainly of senior citizens. ``We all fell prey to the astronomical returns ofinvestment promised by the company,'' says Sarin.

On the other hand, the investors' association in Chennai has filed a criminal plaint against the Chairman and Managing Director of the group, C S Natesan, in the Madras High Court. Natesan is in Chennai Central Jail.

He has been taken to cities such as Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad for interrogation by the police, following complaints lodged against him by the local investors.

``What could be more distressful for the harried investors than the fact that the Delhi Police has not even registered our complaint in the last six months, despite repeated pleas,'' Col Rai says.

The Delhi association has filed a petition supported by details of individual investment of 338 members to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).

``Only a few days ago, we old men could be seen dragging a tempo load of voluminous documents -- 13 separate sets for each member -- up on the fifth floor office of NCDRC at Indian Oil Bhavan inJanpath,''says Sarin. ``We are still pleading to people to contact us,'' Sarin adds, giving the telephone numbers 6820961 and 6318270.

However, there is no immediate end to the battle. The affected people know that it might take years for the legal battle.``I should be alive to claim my money back,'' says Iyengar.