Odisha EOW arrests Bhojpuri film actor in Rs 500 crore cheating case

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch today arrested a Bhojpuri film actor over his alleged involvement in a case pertaining to cheating of whopping Rs 500 crore. The accused, identified as Nikhilananda Pashupalakon, was apprehended from Berhampur.

A case was registered by the agency on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Parsuram Behera in 2016 against the office bearers of Success Online Service System (SOSS) Private Ltd., a chit fund company which had its regional office in Berhampur.

Investigation conducted so far has revealed that SOSS had its registered office in Ghaziabad, UP and was operating its regional offices in different places of the country, including one at Lochapada, Berhampur. Raman Kumar Singh was the Managing Director while Rakesh Kumar was the Secretary of the said company.

The regional office in Berhampur was functioning under Nikhilananda Pasupalak. The office bearers of the company had collected more than Rs 500 crore from people across the country on the pretext of providing insurance service, share marketing, dividends and estates/ distribution of flats etc.

However, they disappeared in January 2012 misappropriating the money collected from the investors. The accused persons changed their contact numbers and addresses to evade arrest.

Further probe revealed that the company was collecting illegal deposits by floating different schemes under the promise of giving health care commodities and also lucrative returns on the amount invested. The company had collected such illegal deposits from Delhi, Jharkhand, Odisha and other places.

It has been ascertained that a substantial part of the money was mobilised by the accused persons for making Bhojpuri films under ‘Cine Vision’, a sister concern of SOSS. Nikhilananda Pasupalak had acted in the movies.

Further investigation by the EOW was underway.