Bhubaneswar: In 2022 till date, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has taken up cases involving many new facets of financial crime. EOW has registered 22 cases involving diversified areas of financial crimes covering from Cheating and forgery in Real estate, Income tax fraud, online/ cyber frauds, job frauds to fake Digital Loan Apps operated through shell companies, mule accounts and virtual/cloud based numbers.
In 2022, in 22 cases, EOW detected fraud involving approximately more than Rs 100 Crores (figure will go upward as investigation progresses) and 60 fraudsters/accused persons were arrested from various states.
All these cases had extensive areas of operation from the interiors of India to places outside Indian territorial boundaries like China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Srilanka etc.
EOW worked with various Law enforcement agencies of Central and other states like ED, Income tax, FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit), RBI, Intelligence Bureau, Bureau of immigration, CBI/ Interpol,CISF, various banks, GST authorities, Mumbai Police, Delhi Police, Kolkata Police, Bangalore police, Hyderabad Police, Rajasthan Police etc.
EOW was also in regular touch with Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Go-Daddy etc in connection with investigation of some cases.
Not only our action saved many persons from frauds but also because of proactive, comprehensive, multi-agency action taken in Digital Loan App fraud saved many lives. It is reported that 108 people committed suicides getting trapped in cruel Loan app cases in India.
Fortunately no one committed suicide in Odisha though there were many people who were victims of this fraud. Important cases which were busted and arrests were made:
1. Illegal digital lending Loan App cases;
2. Income tax TDS refund Fraud case;
3. Real estate/ Flat fraud by Odyssa Homes & Commercials Pvt. Ltd;
4. Hawala/ Cheating Case;
5. Digital Revolution Technologies Fraud case;
6. Agricultural Equipment Subsidy Fraud cases;
7. India Post Payment Bank Mule accounts fraud;
8. Ponzi Scheme- accused were arrested from Gwalior;
9. Cheating in the name of Scholarship scheme and Solar equipment.
