Bhubaneswar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized an Audi car of conman Jyoti Ranjan Beura alias Golden Baba from Bhubaneswar.
The Audi car was found in CRPF area of the state capital after which the central investigating seized the luyxury vehicle. While the car has an estimated value of Rs 75 lakh, the fraudster had bought the secondhand vehicle for Rs 51 lakh, sources said.
The ED which is probing the financial transactions of Beura was reportedly chasing the fraudster who has been absconding after being released on bail around three years ago. He had earlier been arrested in a multi-crore rupees fraud case.
The Commissionerate Police had on December 31, 2018 arrested the fraudster from Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar for allegedly duping a resident of Keonjhar district. Subsequently, he was out on bail and has been on the run since then.
He had also swindled money from several companies on the pretext of sanctioning loans from finance companies. The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch had earlier probed two of his financial fraud, amounting to Rs 12.04 crore and Rs 4.05 crore respectively. He had allegedly taken 12 cheques totaling to Rs 12.04 crore from a mining company with the promise to get a loan of Rs 110 crore sanctioned.
The EOW had also raided the house of the Golden Baba and the seized documents revealed that he had signed an agreement to provide financial assistance of Rs 200 crore to a private hospital at Thane in Mumbai, Rs 300 crore to the Engineering Construction Ltd in Hyderabad and Rs 50 crore to the JK Medical System in Bhubaneswar through fake documents. Apart from this, he had an agreement with 4 to 5 companies for which he had collected Rs 100 crore through the post-dated cheques.
The EOW had also had frozen his seven bank accounts having deposits of Rs 51 lakh. A locker containing nearly 1.5 kg gold worth Rs 40 lakh was also seized. He reportedly owned four luxury cars.
A total of 19 cases are pending against Beura in various police stations in the state.