Ponzi firm official jailed for duping investors in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj

Bhubaneswar: The branch manager of a chitfund firm has been sentenced to three years of imprisonment for duping investors in Udala area of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.

A Special Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) court at Balasore also imposed penalty of Rs 61,000 on convict Sangram Keshari Patra (41), the branch manager of Kolkata Weir Industries Ltd. at Udala in Mayurbhanj.

Patra, a resident of Mangovindpur area in Mayurbhanj, will have to undergo imprisonment for additional nine months in case of non-payment of the penalty amount, the court said.

As per the case records, the ponzi firm had collected huge sums from gullible investors in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts in Odisha by promising good returns.

The firm had opened branch offices at several places in the two districts and engaged local agents to collect deposits from the investors.

Many investors in Udala area of Mayurbhanj were duped of their money after the firm closed its branch office a few years ago.

The police had registered a case against Patra and three residents of West Bengal—Samsul Alam Khan, Ramkrushna Mandal and Sahajahan Khan—for duping the investors of Udala.

The OPID court convicted Patra after examining 10 witnesses and 18 documents in connection with the ponzi scam, said public prosecutor Pranab Kumar Panda.