Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday said he was a victim of a chit-fund scam and urged people to be aware of Ponzi firms' activities to save their hard-earned money.

Delivering his address at the state-level National Consumers Day function, Majhi said: "Two firms had duped me in 1990 and 2002. One of them was a government, and another was private. They allured people with high returns. I also appealed to get back my money. Despite all my efforts to get back the money under the old chit fund law, I could not get back my money."

Majhi was elected to the Odisha Assembly in 2000. However, Majhi remained silent about the two firms that duped him. Sources said these two firms had already been liquidated.

He said that, to his surprise, he found no firm existed. Stating that the issue pertaining to chit fund was earlier complex, the chief minister said: "The law that was made in 1982 to address the issue was cumbersome. You lodged an FIR and then moved from one pillar to another pillar to get back the money. It's too tough. The Centre amended the law in 2019 and the loopholes were plugged."

Social activist Jayant Das said: "As the chief minister was a victim of the chit fund case, he will be able to understand the plight of the victims of the chit fund. He should initiate steps to return the hard-earned money to the victims."

Between 2000 and 2011, nearly two lakh people were hit by the chit-fund scam. Nearly 44 companies had duped people nearly to the tune of ₹5,000 crore. People deposited the money with the hope of getting high returns but were cheated.

The scam surfaced in 2011. Following a hue and cry, the state ordered a crime branch probe. The money involved in the chit-fund scam was estimated at ₹4,373 crore. The victims knocked on the door of the Supreme Court. The apex court intervened in 2014 and ordered a CBI probe involving nearly 44 other chit-fund companies that had allegedly duped the investors. It turned out to be a major election issue for the last 10 years.

Even the then Naveen Patnaik government had set up MM Das Commission and constituted a ₹300 crore corpus fund in 2013 to return the deposits of small investors, particularly those who lost ₹10,000 or less.

Anuradha Subudhi, a chit fund activist, said: "We have already met the law minister of the Mohan Majhi government on this issue. We are hopeful of getting justice."

On this National Consumer Day, food supplies and consumer welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra said during the surprise checks, it was found that petrol pumps and gas agencies were cheating people.