Bhubaneswar: Continuing its crackdown on what is probably the first Nidhi Company Fraud in Odisha, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Crime Branch arrested two more persons for their alleged involvement in  a ponzi scheme scam to the tune of crores in the State. The accused were identified as Dwipika Bhanjo and Tandra Bhanjo, wife and daughter, respectively of Tusar Bhanjo, the main accused who was allegedly running ponzi scheme through his Nidhi firm in Odisha. Tusar was arrested last year from Kolkata following a complaint filed by a Bhubaneswar resident named Manmohan Dora.

The accused mother-daughter duo was nabbed from Hamirpur, Paschim Medinapur in West Bengal and brought to Bhubaneswar on a three-day transit remand. They will be produced before the designated court in Cuttack under Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Act today. 

As per the allegations levelled by the complainant, accused Tushar Bhanjo was running his Ponzi firm, Harit Krishi Nidhi Ltd, M/s Transvision Dream Multi Trade Pvt. Ltd and was the company director. He had allegedly induced Dora and many other investors to invest with his company for high returns like monthly interest of 11% on the invested amount apart from 4-5 % extra commission on adding new members. The company also promised to provide monthly salary of Rs.4,000/- on investment of Rs.4 lakhs, Rs.8,000/- on investment of Rs.8 lakhs and so on.

Falling for the false claims, Dora joined the firm as a member by depositing Rs.4,000 in the year 2023. Subsequently, he deposited Rs 2 lakh in the Company’s bank account after which he was able to open three wallet IDs where he deposited total Rs.2.17 lakh and got 11% interest only for one month. Thereafter, no amount was paid to him by the accused and Tusar absconded with the invested amount of thousands of investors.

Sensing foul play, Dora reached out to police and filed a complaint the same year. Acting on it and registering a case, EOW managed to nab Tusar from Kolkata last year. Investigation revealed that Tusar had formed the firm first formed Transvision Dream Multi Trade (P) Ltd. and then Harit Krishi Nidhi Ltd. which was incorporated with ROC, West Bengal with his family members and himself as its shareholders-cum-Directors.

The company has two offices at Kolkata and three more offices in other parts of West Bengal. But, in violation of the Nidhi rules which mandate that Nidhi Company cannot operate beyond the State of its incorporation, he opened offices of the firm in Odisha, Chhattishgarh, Assam and other places. Further, despite prohibition of chitfund activities in Nidhi Company, he ran the Ponzi scheme by inducing the investors and promising them higher interest apart from offering substantial commission for arranging new investors. For the purpose, he used the social media like You Tube and WhatsApp, leaflet and brochures and held meetings at different places.

The investors’ amount was being deposited in three of the current accounts of the Nidhi Company maintained with Axis Bank, Bandhan Bank and Yes Bank from where the money was being diverted to many other accounts mostly to the accounts of the family members of the arrested accused.

In this way, he in connivance with others collected more than Rs 123 Crore from around 34,000 investors of Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattishgarh, Assam, Tripura, Maharashtra and even of Bangladesh. The amount collected from investors was then misappropriated by diverting to other interested accounts including the accounts of Tusar's wife and daughter. Some of the money was also siphoned off to Bangladesh and China, EOW said in a release. 

The modus operandi of the accused was to promise 11% interest per month on the invested
amount and 34-35% bonus on adding the new investors. Initially, the company paid very few returns as promised and that too from the money collected from the new members joining the scheme. The amount collected from investors was invested in Forex Trading by opening pool account by the Company with the motive to get a return of additional 20% on the invested amount which the investors were not aware of, the release stated, adding that further probe is underway.

A Nidhi Company is a kind of NBFC and formed to borrow and lend money to its members only and dependent on the principle of mutual benefits.