CBI registers case against Odisha ponzi firm

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

New Delhi/ Bhubaneswar, June 26:

The CBI on Thursday registered a fresh case against an Odisha-based ponzi company in connection with its probe into the multi thousand crore chit fund scam in the state.

The central investigating agency has registered a case of cheating against Bhubaneswar based Nabadiganta Capital Service Limited, one of the 44 companies the Supreme Court has directed the agency to probe in the scam, which saw lakhs of small depositors losing their hard earned money, CBI sources said.

Sources said the CBI has named five of its directors – Anjan Kumar Baliarsingh, Kartikeya Parida, Pradeep Kumar Patnaik, Bijay Baral and Hemant Sahu – in the FIR against the chit fund company.

On May 9, the Apex court had directed the CBI to probe the multi-crore scam that had spread its tentacles over West Bengal, Odisha and Assam involving lakhs of depositors and several companies.

While the central agency has registered three FIRs in West Bengal, it has registered over 40 FIRs in Odisha.

The Supreme Court had passed the order for a CBI probe while hearing a PIL seeking a stop to the entire chit fund business across the country and restraint on further collection of funds from depositors as an immediate remedial step.

The petitioners, while seeking for a CBI inquiry into the scam, had contended before the court that they had no faith in the police and had alleged that the probe initiated by state government appeared to be biased and prejudiced