Like a dream, he raised 1,100 cr and made it vanish into thin air

It's so easy to shake off a lakh investors and depositors. Here is how C R Bhansali did it: Move houses, change your phone numbers, and flit...

It8217;s so easy to shake off a lakh investors and depositors. Here is how C R Bhansali did it: Move houses, change your phone numbers, and flit in and out of town.

Nobody8217;s caught up? After some time you can even take some risks8212;attend a dotcom seminar, strike the odd business deal. The one rule you absolutely do not break: Keep away from the media glare.


ONE FROM HIS PR ALBUM: Bhansali is dreaming of a comeback

Ask your friends to shut up too. Today, everybody anyway disowns the man whose calling card was such a mouthful. Dr Chain Roop Bhansali, the self-styled B Com Hons, FCA, ACS, Ph.D, MIIA US, Diploma in Journalism. His close associates hang up and refuse to meet and discuss him.

Some possible hiccups: You may have to spend a little time in jail; but you are out in three months. They will attach and seal your offices. A liquidator goes through all your things and puts a price to it. But you can get over that.

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The group fell like a proverbial house of cards just six years ago. It took other finance companies like JVG Finance, Prudential Capital Markets, Helios, Hoffland Finance and DSJ Finance down with it. Like a plug pulled out of a bathtub, the confidence of depositors and investors simply drained. The bottomline? Investors had lost Rs 2,500 crore in these companies alone.

8226; Money raised from investors: Rs 900 cr
8226; Money from financial institutions: Rs 200 cr
8226; When the shares were suspended: May 1997

After the CRB crash, the Reserve Bank of India had the decency to panic and establish better norms. Market regulator Sebi too created a system through which mutual funds could be monitored better.

Now comes the joke. As late as February this year, Bhansali pushed for a repayment plan for CRB Capital Markets. His investors are not laughing. 8216;8216;I8217;ve no hope of getting back my Rs 1-lakh deposit,8217;8217; says Karkal Umanath Hegde, a former employee of CRB.

Investors who retired hurt

8226; Abdul Kader Mukadam, a retail investor in Mumbai, sunk around Rs 2.4 lakh in CRB Capital Market8217;s fixed deposit scheme in early 1994. 8216;8216;I was impressed by the growth of the company. I never imagined it would collapse one day!8217;8217; he says, adding, 8216;8216;I invested my retirement benefits.8217;8217; Since 1997, when CRB collapsed, he8217;s wiser. 8216;8216;I stopped putting money in fixed deposits of companies. I trust only public sector banks now.8217;8217;

8226; Karkal Umanath Hegde lost his job with CRB and Rs 1 lakh that he invested in the company. 8216;8216;I never thought it would sink in this manner. This episode has taught me a lesson.8217;8217; Though the official liquidator has taken steps to return the investors8217; money, he8217;s not hopeful of getting it back. 8216;8216;I had invested this money from my retirement benefits.8217;8217;

Bhansali recently pulled another rabbit out of his hat. He checked with Delhi High Court and called a meeting of all secured and unsecured creditors and shareholders of the company. What was on the agenda? A revival scheme. It got stuck in a legal tangle.

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8216;8216;He proposed to pay back investors in instalments. But nobody was convinced,8217;8217; says one of his close associates, who refused to be named.

These days, the court-appointed liquidator goes about his job and investors quietly file affidavits for repayment.

The Indian Express made several attempts to contact Bhansali. He ducked every time. A close associate of Bhansali said: 8216;8216;He8217;s somewhere in Delhi.8217;8217; When asked, former vice-chairman of CRB Capital Market S K Jain intoned: 8216;8216;I have not been in touch with Bhansali or CRB group for the past six years. I8217;m now a practising company secretary. I don8217;t know anything about Bhansali.8217;8217;

The man who visualised a financial empire now moves in the shadows.

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READ PART-I

Missing from BSE: Rs 10,000 crore