Bhubaneswar, June 8: The Economic Offences Wing, Odisha on Saturday arrested the director of a Ponzi scheme company from West Bengal for allegedly cheating and misappropriating more than Rs 123 crore.
The accused has been identified as Tusar Bhanjo of Hamirpur, Paschim Medinapur of West Bengal. EOW arrested Bhanjo from his residence under Haridevpur in Kolkata.
The case was registered on the written allegation of one Manmohan Dora of Bhubaneswar against the Company Harit Krishi Nidhi Ltd., M/s Transvision Dream Multi Trade Pvt. Ltd. and its Director Tushar Bhanjo for inducing him and many other investors to invest with his company for high returns like monthly interest of 11% on the invested amount apart from 4-5 % extra commission on adding new members. The Company also promised to provide monthly salary of Rs.4,000 on investment of Rs.4 lakhs, Rs.8,000 on investment of Rs.8 lakhs and so on. In order to induce the investors, the accused Director Tushar Bhanjo was using the social media, leaflet, brochures and physical meetings. Being induced, the informant joined the Harit Krishi Nidhi Company as a member by depositing Rs.4, 000 in the year 2023.
Subsequently, the informant deposited Rs.2 lakhs in the Company’s bank account after which he was able to open 03 No. of wallet IDs in which he had deposited total Rs.2.17 lakhs and got 11% interest only for one month. Thereafter, no amount was paid to him by the accused Director Tusar Bhanjo who absconded with the invested amount of thousands of investors including the informant.
As found on investigation, the arrested accused Tusar Bhanjo who had earlier formed M/s Transvision Dream Multi Trade Pvt. Ltd. registered with ROC, Cuttack, opened Harit Krishi Nidhi Ltd. in the year 2023, which was incorporated with ROC, West Bengal. But, in violation of the Nidhi rules, he opened the offices of the Nidhi Company in Odisha, Chhattishgarh, Assam etc. whereas the Nidhi Company cannot operate beyond the State of its incorporation. Further, chit fund activities although are prohibited in Nidhi Company, yet he ran the Ponzi scheme by inducing the investors and promising them higher interest apart from offering substantial commission for arranging new investors. For the purpose, he used the social media like You Tube and WhatsApp, leaflet and brochures and held meetings at different places. In this way, he collected more than Rs.123 Cr. From around 34,000 investors of Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattishgarh, Assam, Tripura, Maharashtra and even of Bangladesh. After paying some few promised initial return @ 11% per month, the arrested accused Director absconded with the collected amount from the investors and misappropriated the same by diverting to other interested accounts. Even, money has been siphoned off to Bangladesh and China.
