Bhubaneswar: The Bureau of Immigration (BoI) has issued a lookout circular against Manoj Kumar Panda, director of Odyssa Homes & Commercials Pvt Ltd in Odisha capital.
The BoI issued the notice on the request of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar which mentioned that Manoj was absconding after it started investigation into a fraud case against the real estate firm.
The EOW had registered the case on the basis of a complaint filed by Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra, an employee of TCS, alleging that the directors of Odyssa Homes & Commercials had duped him and many other investors to the tune of Rs 20 crore on the pretext of providing them dispute-free flats in its apartment project, ‘Ganapati Homes’, located at Sampur near Kalinga Studio in Bhubaneswar.
During the investigation, the EOW found that the directors of the firm had collected around Rs 20 crore from 42 investors from 2013 to 2016 to provide them with complete flats in their project by 2018 and necessary agreements and MOUs were also executed in this regard.
But no flat was allotted to any of the investors. Rather, in order to cheat the investors, the directors of the company knowingly lingered the process to hand over the plots and even resold seven flats to other customers. The company had cheated other investors in different projects and deliberately made multiple transactions of the flats after receiving a substantial amount with criminal intention.
It was also found that criminal cases have been registered at different police stations and complaint cases instituted in the jurisdictional courts against the directors of the firm. Manoj was heading all affairs of the company and cheated many investors in their different projects in the name of giving flats/lands.
Manoj is one of the three directors of Odyssa Homes and Commercials while Arabindo Santra is the managing director. Arabindo has already been arrested and is in judicial custody. The two other directors Manoj and Saroj Panda are absconding.
It may be noted that the lookout circular is generally issued to alert immigration check posts at airports/seaports to inform the law enforcement agency, if the wanted person tries to leave the country or arrive in the country from abroad.
