Bhubaneswar: The primary suspect in a major investment scam, involving fraudulent share trading amounting to more than Rs 40 crore, has been arrested from Bankura in West Bengal, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police informed on Friday.
The accused, identified as Amit Mandal of Bankura district in West Bengal, was apprehended on December 31. He was produced before a local court there and subsequently brought to Odisha on transit remand. Mandal will be produced before the designated court under the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Act and the special EOW court in Cuttack on January 2.
The case stems from a complaint filed by Sushant Kumar Das from Khurda district, who alleged that Mandal and his associates persuaded him to invest Rs 8.5 lakh between 2022 and 2024 for share trading, promising returns of 3.5% to 7% per month. To build trust, Mandal provided agreements and post-dated cheques. Initial small payouts were made, but payments soon stopped, and Mandal went absconding.
Probes reveal that Mandal operated under the banner of a non-existent entity called ‘Kalpana Financial Services’ and later referenced a company named Kalpamit Consultancy Private Limited. He and his Odisha-based agents organised meetings in hotels in Angul and Bhubaneswar to attract depositors. Between 2020 and 2024, Mandal allegedly collected over Rs 120 crore from around 500 investors in Odisha and 100 in West Bengal, with outstanding dues exceeding Rs 40 crore.
The EOW described the operation as a classic Ponzi scheme, where early returns were funded by new deposits. When payouts halted in 2023, Mandal falsely claimed funds would be reinvested in his new company before vanishing.
Funds were routed primarily through Mandal’s personal accounts at ICICI and HDFC banks, with transactions totalling approximately Rs 122 crore in one ICICI account alone. Some amounts also flowed through Kalpamit Consultancy and associates’ accounts. A laptop seized from Mandal is believed to contain details of investors and transactions.T
The case has been registered under sections for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy under the IPC, along with provisions of the banned unregulated deposit schemes act and the IT Act, and further investigation is underway, it added.
