EOW Freezes 7 Bank Accounts Of Golden Baba

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on Tuesday froze seven bank accounts of the self-styled Golden Baba alias Jyotiranjan Beura.

Sources in the Crime Branch said that seven bank accounts of the fraudster having a deposit of Rs 51 lakh has been frozen.

The EOW had taken the conman on one-day remand on January 12 for interrogation in connection with two fraud cases registered against him.

The Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) on January 11 had allowed the EOW to take him on a day remand against its prayer for two days.

Acting on his statement during the remand period, the EOW sleuths had raided his house and seized several incriminating documents. From these documents, it was found that he had 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 4-5 companies for which he had collected Rs 100 crore through post-dated cheques, which have been seized by the EOW.

The annual turnover of the fraudster from nine group of companies was Rs 3769 crore while his annual Income Tax returns was Rs 4.16 crore.

In view of the huge money laundering of the self-styled Golden Baba, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will also conduct a simultaneous probe.

As informed by the Crime Branch ADG Santosh Upadhyay, the EOW will probe two financial fraud amounting to Rs 12.04 crore and Rs 4.05 crore.

A total of 19 cases are pending against the fraudster in different police stations in the state, he said.

The Commissionerate police, on December 31 last year, had arrested him from Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar for allegedly duping a resident of Keonjhar district.