Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police arrested a couple from Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly duping gullible investors of over Rs 20 crore in the name of share trading and other investment schemes.
The accused, identified as Chandra Sekhar Sahoo and his wife Jharana Sahoo of Anandapur area in Keonjhar district, were brought to Odisha on transit remand after being apprehended in Greater Noida. They are being produced before the Designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttack.
EOW said in a press release that the case was registered following a complaint by an employee of MCL in Talcher against Chandra Sekhar Sahoo, MD of M/s Evoreach Ventures Pvt Ltd and its other Directors. The accused persons induced the informant and many others to invest through lucrative schemes floated by their company to get double of the amount in 30 months. The office of the Company was initially functioning at Handidhua in Talcher. Later, another office was opened at Patia in Bhubaneswar. Both Chandra Sekhar and his wife Jharana were Directors of the company.
After being induced, the informant and his wife invested more than Rs 1.05 crore with the company between February 2022 and February 2024. The accused MD also collected different amounts from different persons not only for investment in his company but also for share trading with Octa FX and many other trading companies. He was mentioning the investors to have re-invested the collected amounts in Real Estate, Retail Mart, Pearl Culture, Fish Farming, Hotel business etc. The amounts of the investors were being deposited both in the account of M/s Evoreach Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and in the personal accounts of the Directors. In order to induce the investors, the accused Directors were distributing colourful brochures containing the lucrative schemes of the Company promising high returns. The investors were being issued with certificates and bonds fraudulently in order to win their confidence. After paying the promised return initially for few months to some investors, the accused Directors closed the company offices both at Handidhua and Patia, and absconded.
Investigation made so far revealed that accused Chandra Sekhar was working as a chartered accountant with MCL, Talcher and later resigned from the job and opened the company in the name of M/s Evoreach Ventures Pvt Ltd during 2021 of which he was the MD and his wife Jharana was one of the Directors. Subsequently, he converted the company from private limited to public limited and floated different unregulated deposit schemes illegally promising high returns to the investors. He was mainly inducing the investors to double the invested amount in 30 months by paying 30 equal returns every month. He was giving impression to the investors that the invested amount will be reinvested in Real Estate, Retail Mart, Pearl Culture, Fish Farming, Hotel business etc. Believing in the accused Directors, large number of investors from Odisha and other places like Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi invested huge amounts through the schemes floated by the Company.
EOW said the accused Directors have collected around Rs 20 crores fraudulently from hundreds of investors in the name of share trading and investment through unregulated deposit schemes of Evoreach Ventures Pvt Ltd and other companies like Stolax India Pvt Ltd and Evoreach Nidhi Ltd. Investors’ money were also deposited in the personal accounts of both the arrested Directors.
During investigation, many incriminating documents like fake agreements, Term Deposit Receipts of different companies, broachers containing different schemes, Mobile Phones etc. have been seized. The investigation of the case is on.
