Senior citizen yet to receive deposit receipt from Jaiprakash Associates   

December 12, 2009

‘THANK YOU DEPOSITORS’ proclaims a recent, huge advertisement brought out by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, a Jaypee group company. But the same ad does not mention whether it has issued receipts for depositors.

One such investor, Vidyadhar Radhakrishna Lad, a senior citizen and shareholder of the company, had subscribed for the fixed deposit scheme of Jaiprakash Associates by investing Rs1 lakh. Despite writing to the company and running from pillar to post for two months, Mr Lad has still not received his fixed deposit receipt (FDR).

Mr Lad invested in the fixed deposit scheme of Jaiprakash Associates on 6 October 2009 through a sub-broker, who then submitted the same to the company’s authorised broker RR Investors Capital Services Pvt Ltd. Mr Lad made the payment of Rs1 lakh via cheque number 223232 drawn on HDFC Bank, Ahura Centre branch, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 093. The broker, RR Investors, has also not responded to Mr Lad’s two emails on this subject.

Mr Lad in his mail to Manoj Gaur, executive chairman, Jaiprakash Associates, wrote, “It would have been better had you added one simple statement ‘FDRs BEING DESPATCHED’ in your advertisement. This would have not only made deposit-holders happy, but (it would have) also impressed the common public who have nothing to do with the company (at present) and who may invest their hard-earned money sometime in (the) future whenever the company needs funds.” 

However, the company, in a response to a Moneylife email, said that it received the payment from Mr Lad on 10th October and issued an FDR (number 166884) on the same date. As per the terms and conditions of the scheme, Jaiprakash Associates said it had dispatched the FDR on 7th December through registered post. 

Surprisingly, the company said it has not received any mail from neither Mr Lad nor Moneylife on its e-mail id ‘[email protected]’. The question is, why did the company give the same email ID to investors for correspondence?

Several senior citizens like Mr Lad survive on the interest income that they earn from fixed deposits. Companies like Jaiprakash Associates should keep this in mind and at least make sure that they communicate properly with their investors.
 
Separately, when we tried to reach the company’s website www.jilindia.com through Google, we were warned that this site may harm our computer!
— Ravi Samalad