Bhubaneswar: The chairman of a company named Mass Infra Reality, Pratap Kumar Biswal was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Sunday on charges of duping investors of several crore rupees.
Biswal was arrested from a posh locality in New Garia area of Kolkata by the sleuths. He was produced before the CJM, 24 Pargana (South), Kolkata on Sunday and brought on transit remand to Odisha.
Further, Biswal was produced before the Designated Court, under OPID Act, Balasore today. He was booked under multiple Sections of the IPC and Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors (OPID)| Act, 2011.
The EOW acted on a complaint filed by one Sukdev Hota of Soro, who had deposited money in lieu of high returns in Biswal’s company.
“Biswal, Chairman & Managing Director of M/s Mass Infra Reality Ltd. and Human Welfare Credit & Thrift Co-operative Society Ltd. and its other six directors allegedly duped the complainant and many other depositors to the tune of several crores in the pretext of returning high rate of interest on deposits under different schemes floated by their Company,” the EOW stated.
Investigation revealed that M/s Mass Infra Reality Ltd. is registered with ROC, Kolkata during September, 2010 under the Companies Act, 1956 having its registered office under Barasat Police Station, 24 Praganas in West Bengal.
“Biswal was the company’s CMD and there are other six Directors. Subsequently, during the year-2012, it changed to Human Welfare Credit & Thrift Co-operative Society Ltd. registered under Multistate Cooperative Societies Act, 2012 having its registered office in Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi. Biswal was named the new firm’s president,” the EOW further stated.
The company represented through the Managing Director and other Directors had allured general public with false promise of returning high rate of interest on deposits under different schemes of the company and unauthorisedly collected huge amount from several investors. “Later they absconded from the locality after closing their offices,” an EOW official said and added that investigation of the case is in progress.
