Bhubaneswar: The Editor of ‘Bada Khabar’ TV news channel, Ardhendu Das, has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch, informed EOW SP Dilip Tripathy on Thursday.
Reportedly, Das had been picked up last night and arrested after questioning in connection with an allegation of duping a Delhi-based businessman of around Rs 90 lakh.
The businessman Gagandeep Singh Chawla, proprietor of Solution Broadcast company, had lodged a complaint with the EOW alleging that Das had purchased equipment to set up a news channel in 2020.
A deal of over Rs 1 crore was finalised between them and Das paid Chawla some amount in advance. But Das did not pay the remaining amount. Based on this complaint, the EOW registered a case and initiated an investigation.
Das, on the other hand, had dismissed the allegations saying that the equipment sold by Chawla were not standard and unusable for broadcast purposes. He added that most of the costly hardware and software provided by Chawla has been returned.
A Cuttack-based businessman had also lodged a complaint with Purighat police against Das alleging he is yet to receive a pending payment of around Rs 6 lakh from Das for plywood purchased in October 2020.
