Fraudster Absconding For 8 Years Held For Duping People Of Rs 7 Cr In Odisha

Ganjam: Director of a ponzi firm has been arrested on charges of defrauding hundreds of investors in Odisha’s Ganjam district.

The accused has been identified as Trinath Panda, director of the Jagannathprasad branch of the finance company, ‘Green India Private Ltd’.

According to sources, Panda duped depositors of around Rs 7 crore and was arrested on Monday by Jaganathprasad police.

The finance company began functioning from Berhampur in 2012 and later opened a branch office at Jagannathprasad.

Apart from Panda, other mediators were also engaged to trap naive people to deposit huge amounts of money with a promise that it will be doubled in a short span of time, Inspector In-Charge (IIC), Dilip Swain informed.

It has been alleged that Panda also lured people to invest money in the company by promising to provide land. Since he hailed from the area, most people trusted him and fell prey. However, the firm suddenly shut.

The fraud came to the fore after one Banamali Mohanty, who had invested over Rs 10 lakh in the firm, lodged a complaint with Jagannathprasad police in 2014 based on which a probe was initiated. Non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against Panda and his associates.

Three of his associates, identified as Gadadhar Pradhan, Bhagaban Dalabehera, and Bijay Pradhan, were arrested in June this year. However, they did not reveal the location of Panda.

Later on October 17, the Jagannathprasad police acted on a tip-off and nabbed Panda on charges of defrauding over Rs 7 crore from hundreds of investors in Ganjam. He was produced before a court at Bhanjanagar and remanded to judicial custody.

“With the arrest of Panda, four persons have been apprehended in the ponzi firm case. More would soon be arrested,” the IIC said.