Grocery Marts Scam: Company Owner Held For Duping Investors In Odisha Of Rs 12 Cr

Bhubaneswar: Director-cum-owner of Armada Bazar Pvt Ltd, Parsuram Rajnetbhai Pal, has been remanded to judicial custody after being brought to Odisha from Agra district jail for his alleged involvement in a Rs 12 crore cheating case, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar, informed on Friday.

In November 2023, Pankaj Kumar Parida, an MBA and a director of Armada Bazar Pvt Ltd, was arrested for cheating several people by illegally securing investments to set up grocery marts.

The EOW had received a complaint in August last year against the company and its directors of defrauding investors. Ruturaj Mohanty of Dhenkanal had alleged he and his relatives had invested Rs 1.26 crore with the company for opening new grocery and daily utility item marts in different cities of Odisha and its warehousing projects for high returns.

According to EOW, the company floated various schemes to open marts and awarded franchises in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Nayagarh, Bargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Parlakhemundi, Jagannathprasad, Odagaon and Nabarangpur for investments ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 5 crore, promising 2% returns towards the adjustment of the invested amount and another 2% interest on the invested amount. The investors were also told that they would get 3.5% of the net monthly billing of the mart, which will be credited after two months of investment for next 38 consecutive months.

“The company was fraudulently executing the mart agreements with the investors, rent agreement with the mart owner and also the franchise agreement with new investor.”

After collecting more than Rs 12 crore from Odisha between February 2022 to January 2023, the company neither ran the marts nor gave the franchise promised to the investors. The firm also did not return the money to the investors.

The company has also defrauded the investors of states like Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, and Maharashtra in the same manner. Pal in connivance with Parida organised public meetings, seminars, conference in different places, including the reputed Hotels at Bhubaneswar, to lure general public to invest with the company and to arrange the new investors. “He is the mastermind in the case,” the EOW said.

The company also had sister concerns like Armada Mart Pvt Ltd, Armada Pay Pvt Ltd, Armada Express Pvt Ltd, Armada Hotel & Resort Pvt Ltd.

Cases have also been registered against Pal at Jammu, Visakhapatnam, Agra and Kolkata. The details of cases in which he is involved in different States are under collection. Parida looked after the company’s operations in Odisha and Jharkhand.

Several incriminating materials like laptop, mobile phones, authorization letter, money receipts and 3 vehicles were seized from their possession during investigation, the EOW added.