Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested one Pankaj Kumar Parida, Director of Armada Bazar Pvt Ltd for allegedly defrauding around Rs 12 crore from investors in Odisha.
According to an official press release of the EOW, Parida, a permanent resident of Chandabalipadia under Sahadevkhunta police limits of Balasore district was arrested on Wednesday. He was currently residing in Lingipur area of the city under Dhauli police limits. He has been booked under sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC, read with section 6 of OPID Act.
Parida was produced before the Designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttack on Thursday.
The above mentioned case was registered basing on the written allegation of one Ruturaj Mohanty, who had alleged against the company M/s Armada Bazar Pvt. Ltd. and its Directors namely Parsuram Rajnetbhai Pal and the arrested accused Pankaj Kumar Parida for cheating him and his relations to the tune of Rs 1.26 Cr in the name of investment with the company for establishing/opening new grocery and daily utility item marts in different cities of Odisha and its warehousing projects for high returns.
As found, the Directors and Promoters of M/s Armada Bazar Pvt. Ltd. during the period from Feb’ 2022 to Jan’ 2023 induced the general public to invest with the company for opening the grocery and daily utility item marts giving the false promise of providing lucrative and hefty returns like 2% returns towards the adjustment of the invested amount and another 2% as interest on the invested amount. This apart, the investor would get 3.5% of the net monthly billing of the mart which will be credited after two months of investment for next 38 consecutive months.
The company was fraudulently executing the mart agreements with the investors, rent agreement with the mart owner and also the franchise agreement with new investors.
The company is also having sisterconcerns like Armada Mart Pvt. Ltd., Armada Pay Pvt. Ltd., Armada Express Pvt. Ltd., Armada Hotel & Resort Pvt. Ltd. etc.
The company has floated 05 schemes namely Mini Mart, Super Mart, Hyper Mart, Mega Mart and Super Mega Mart, for the investment ranging from Rs 20 lakhs to Rs 5 Cr for the high returns i.e. 4% interest per month and 3% on the billing amount.
Similarly, the company was also floating 03 schemes for the franchise of the marts at different places of Odisha like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Nayagarh, Bargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Parlakhemundi, Jagannathprasad, Odagaon, Nabarangpur etc. covering 08 districts and was receiving investment with the assurance to pay 8% interest per month.
After collecting more than Rs 12 Cr from Odisha only, the company neither run the marts nor did it give the franchise nor did return the money to the investors, and cheated the investors of the amount.
The company has also defrauded the investors of as many as 10 States like Jharkhand, Odisha, J & K, Gujrat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra etc. in the like manner.
The arrested accused Pankaj Parida, an MBA in marketing, was working as a Promoter and subsequently as a Director of the company and was responsible for the activities of the company in Odisha.
He in conspiracy with the main Director Parshuram Rajnetbhai Pal was organizing public meetings, seminars, conference etc. in different places including the reputed Hotels at Bhubaneswar to induce the general public to invest with the company and to arrange the new investors.
As found, the accused is instrumental for investment of Rs 12 Cr only from Odisha. The nationwide figure is under collection.
The accused was also in-charge of Jharkhand. He has issued money receipts to some of the investors on behalf of the company, and lakhs of money has also been transferred from the company account to his personal account. He has also signed the rent agreement for the mart as authorized person of the company.
During investigation many incriminating materials like laptop, mobile phones, authorization letter and money receipts have been seized in the case.
Further investigation in the case is underway.
