Bhubaneswar: Managing Director of chit fund company Vibgyour Group Pabitra Kumar Sahoo was on Wednesday convicted by a special court in for duping gullible investors of over Rs 14 crore in Odisha.
While convicting Sahoo, the special court under Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors (OPID) Act in Cuttack sentenced him to imprisonment for ten years.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 70,000 under multiple sections.
It may be noted that, police had arrested Sahoo from Banpur in Khurda district in 2015 for defrauding investors of Rs 14 crore.
He was booked under sections 420, 120(B) of IPC and Sections 4, 5 and 6 of Prize Chit and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act 1978 and Section 6 of the OPID Act.
Sahoo, a resident of Bolagada in Khurda district, was held for cheating and criminal conspiracy.
Notably, Sahoo had opened the company’s office at Suryanagar in the capital city in 2009 and allegedly collected around Rs 14 crore from the investors through various schemes like recurring deposit, monthly income scheme and fixed plans.
The company, with its headquarters at Vibgyor Tower, 87, Dr Suresh Sarkar Road in Kolkata in West Bengal, had failed to return the money of the investors though it had promised them to give hefty returns earlier.
On May 5 in 2015, hundreds of depositors and agents from Nayagarh and Khurda district had staged a dharna in front of the office of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch seeking action against the company.
