Bhubaneswar, Nov 2: Economic Offences Wing, (EOW), Bhubaneswar, has arrested one Pankaj Kumar Parida of Chandabalipadia under Sahadevkhunta Police station of Balasore on the charge of cheating investors in Odisha to the tune of around Rs 12 crore.
EOW sources here on Thursday said Pankaj Parida , the Promoter/Director of M/s Armada Bazar Pvt. Ltd, was arrested from Lingipur, Dhauli, on Wednesday U/s 406/420/467/468/471/120- B IPC, r/w Sec.6 of OPID Act.
The accused will be produced before the Designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttack on Thursday.
The EOW swung into action on the basis of a complainant by one Ruturaj Mohanty. Mohanty alleged that M/s Armada Bazar Pvt. Ltd. and its Directors —Parsuram Rajnetbhai Pal and Pankaj Kumar Parida cheated him and his relatives to the tune of Rs.1.26 Crore in the name of investment with the company for opening new grocery and daily utility item marts in different cities of Odisha and its warehousing projects for high returns.
Investigation revealed that Directors and Promoters of the company during Feb’ 2022 to Jan’ 2023 induced people to invest with the company for opening the grocery and daily utility item marts giving the false promise of providing lucrative and hefty returns .
The company floated five schemes for investment ranging from Rs.20 lakhs to Rs.5 Crore for the high returns .and three schemes for the franchise of marts at Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Nayagarh, Bargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Parlakhemundi, Jagannathprasad, Odagaon and Nabarangpur.
The company was fraudulently executing the mart agreements with the investors, rent agreement with the mart owner and also the franchise agreement with new investors.
After collecting more than Rs.12 Crore from Odisha only, the company neither run the marts nor did it give the franchise nor did return the money to the investors, and cheated the investors of the amount.
The company has also defrauded the investors of as many as 10 States like Jharkhand, Odisha, J & K, Gujrat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra in the like manner.
The arrested accused Pankaj Parida, an M.B.A in marketing, was working as a Promoter and subsequently as a Director of the company and was responsible for the activities of the company in Odisha.
The accused was also in-charge of Jharkhand. He has issued money receipts to some of the investors on behalf of the company, and lakhs of money has also been transferred from the company account to his personal account.
