Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch Monday arrested the director of M/s Shreya Infrastructure Services Limited, a realty firm, on charges of defrauding more than 100 persons on the pretext of providing affordable studio flats in Puri.
According to a senior EOW official, Gatikrushna Dash (48), a resident of Sahid Nagar area here, has been taken into custody on the basis of a case (28/2018) registered under Sections 420, 406, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC apart from Section 6 of the OPID Act, 2011 by Debadutta Routray, a whistleblower.
As per the case details, the dubious realty firm, through its registered office at Plot-443/0 in Sahid Nagar locality, had promised to provide studio apartments at Sipasarubali in Puri for Rs 9.5 lakh. “The firm convinced more than 100 people into depositing around Rs 5 crore between 2014 and 2015,” the official said.
Being the director of the firm, Dash had executed agreements with the depositors. And as per the terms, the firm was supposed to deliver the possession of the flats within three years from the date of agreements. “However, the company neither handed over the possession of the flats, nor did it refund the amount. This prompted Routray, one of the depositors, to approach the EOW,” the official further said.
This apart, the EOW also claimed to have stumbled upon the fact that Dash, though inducted as the director of the firm in 2014, was signing agreements with the purchasers prior to that, hinting at the ill intention of the company, the official pointed out.
Notably, the firm’s managing director Himanshu Sekhar Nayak was arrested by the EOW January 3.