Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 14:

The Odisha Crime Branch, probing into the Oscar chit fund scam, has issued notices to five Ollywood artists including veteran actor Uttam Mohanty and arrested comedian Tatwa Prakash Satapathy aka Papu Pom Pom over their alleged links with the ponzi firm, sources said.

actors

Besides Mohanty and Papu, the investigating agency has served notices to actress Jina, Lipi and Kajal to depose before it within two weeks and keep their side, sources added.

According to reports, the five artists had gone to Surat in the past to participate in promotional events of the Oscar Group. During the programmes, they had allegedly addressed the gathering in favour of the chit fund company and its chief Prabhas Rout.

Getting impressed over the speeches, many depositors had reportedly invested crores of rupees in the firm. Later, the company allegedly duped the investors.

On the other hand, trouble continues to mount for Papu after issuance of the notices as he is already accused in casting couch case and lodged in Jharpada Special Jail here. Besides, he had acted in all the four Odia movies— ‘To Akhire Mu’ (2010), ‘Most Wanted’ (2011), ‘Balunga Toka’ (2011) and ‘Rangeela Toka’ (2012)– produced by Oscar chief Prabhas Rout by allegedly investing money collected from the investors.

Notably, as many as 15 depositors from Maharashtra had lodged their complaints against Rout with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch on June 17. They claimed that they had participated in a programme organized by the Oscar Group in Gujarat wherein Ollywood actors Uttam Mohanty, Papu Pom Pom, Kajal Mishra and Archita had allegedly endorsed the company to invest in it.

Worth mentioning, the Oscar Group had floated a chit fund company in 2010. The dubious firm was operating in Odisha, Gujarat and Maharashtra and allegedly duped gullible investors to the tune of Rs 230 crore.