Protesters accuse OSCAR of looting Rs 230 cr, demand action

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Mar 10:

Members of Kranti Odisha, a city based civil society group, today staged a protest in front of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch office here demanding action against a public limited company ‘OSCAR’ which it alleged had duped investors of more than Rs 230 crores in the guise of collection of scheme deposits inside the state and in Surat in Gujarat.

They submitted two memorandums to CB DIG Sanjay Kumar and to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urging them to initiate a criminal case against the company and stringent action against the directors and office bearers.

In ther memorandum, they have alleged that the company has violated Odisha Public Depositors Act, SEBI and RBI guidelines by collecting huge amounts of money from the depositors promising high returns.

Gangadhar Sahu, head of Kranti Odisha said the EOW should initiate a criminal case of forgery, cheating and violation of aforesaid guidelines against Pravas Chandra Rout, permanent resident of Pattamundai in Kendrapara district, who is the chairman cum managing director (CMD) of the company, general manager (GM) Muna Patra who hails from Ganjam district and deputy general manager (DGM) Rabi Prasad Swain of Polasara in Ganjam district. The company has its corporate office at plot number-767 in Oscar Vihar under Nandankanan police limits and a registered office at N-3/445, IRC village under Nayapalli police limits here.

Sahu further alleged that the company had cheated people of Rs 230 crore between 2009 and 2014 through its branches in Odisha. “We were given an impression by the agents, who were given a target for collection of public money, that our money will doubl within short periods,” he said.

“We were further told by many officials of the compan, who are acting at the behest of the managing director and other directors of the company, that they are having OSCAR- cooperative limited, management services limited, education trust, movies and infra development limited wherein this money will be utilized. Therefore an impression was created in the mind of the depositors that the company will be able to return the money as per their assurance. But their promises went in vain when they failed to return the deposited money,” Sahu said.

The Crime Branch has registered a case in this matter. “We will investigate the matter and anybody found guilty will be booked under law,” said a senior CB official.