Odisha police seize chit fund company papers from drain !
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 18:
Even as the CBI is conducting a series of raids on chit fund companies in Odisha, the commissionerate police on Sunday seized several bundles of files and papers of two chit fund companies from a drain here.
According to reports, residents of Bomikhal area under Rasulgarh locality noticed four sacks of papers floating on the main drain in the evening and informed the police.
A police taem rushed to the spot and brought out the sacks from the water. On opening of these sacks, police found several files and papers belonging to Swastik India Multi-State Cooperative Agency and Utkal Gramin Chit Fund Company.
“If necessary, these papers would be handed over to the CBI,” said a senior police officer.
It may be mentioned that the Swastik India Multi-State Cooperative Agency had opened its office near the IDBI Bank on the Janpath under Sahid Nagar police station limits and another office in Bomikhal area in which a senior BJD leader was involved.
Apart from this, the company had opened its offices at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, New Delhi, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Jaipur.
It was alleged that the company had managed to collect over Rs 100 crore from the people of Odisha by luring them with the promise of attractive returns against their investment.
It may be mentioned that the Swastik India Multi-State Cooperative Agency is among the 44 chit fund companies being probed by the CBI in course of its ongoing raids.
Prior to the CBI probe, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch, during its investigation, was aware of a close nexus between a ruling BJD MLA and the owner of Swastik India. Despite this, it had let them off due to political pressure.
Sources said that the Swastik India owner is now roaming freely in the Badagada Brit Colony area of the city.
Swastik India Multi-State Cooperative Agency and Utkal Gramin Chit Fund Company (an old company taken over by Jagabandhu Panda and Manoranjan Nanda) were part and parcel of Artha Tatwa Chit Fund company and are different just in name.
From a reliable source I was able to know that former Director Manoranjan Nanda and Jagabandhu Panda (a close relative of Deputy Superintendent of Police Pramod Panda of Odisha Crime Branch) of Artha Tatwa were the directors of these two companies and these two companies were formed by Pradeep Sethy (CMD of Artha Tatwa Chit Fund Company) on the direction of one politician and one bureaucrat. After formation of these two companies a huge amount of wealth was transferred to these companies from Artha Tatwa under the instruction of the same politician and bureaucrat.
Manoranjan Nanda is not yet arrested by Odisha Crime Branch and Jagabandhu Panda is in Jharapara jail at present.
JAYANTA KUMAR DAS (RTI ACTIVIST), 9861770749(M)