Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested two more staffers of a Ranchi-based trust for duping several persons of more than Rs 4 crore on the pretext of selling LED bulbs and providing pre-matric scholarships to the students.
The sleuths apprehended the accused Nishant Prakash Jaiswal and Amar Danish from Ranchi in Jharkhand Tuesday in connection with the case (21/22) registered on the basis of a petition filed by Sebati Mahanta and other district coordinators of the ‘Vastav India Trust’ in Odisha.
The accused Nishant and Amar were the State Field Officer and Project In-Charge of Vastav India Trust for Odisha respectively. The Vastav India Trust registered with the sub-registrar, Ranchi, had opened an office at Bomikhal, Bhubaneswar in March, 2022.
The FIRs alleged that the trust had appointed block coordinators and other officials in districts like Sundargarh, Bhadrak, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bolangir, Dhenkanal and others to lure parents and people of the state.
The coordinators were asked to organise small meetings in their areas and sensitise people about two schemes launched by the trust. The accused firm used to collect Rs 1,650 in cash by offering six costly LED bulbs under their solar awareness programme, it added.
“The survey application form provided by the trust under the scheme was containing the logo of the Ministry of MSME, government of India which has been forged in order to win the trust of the general public,” said an EOW official.
Similarly, the trust collected huge amounts from parents promising to offer Rs 1,000 monthly pre-matric scholarship for 24 months on the deposit of Rs 3,000 under the programme ‘Chhulo Aasman’ (touch the sky).
“The scholarship amount was payable to the bank account opened in the name of the parents of the concerned students. In this way, the trust collected approximately Rs 4 crore from more than 3,500 people, both public and parents. After taking one-time membership fees, the trust initially sent Rs 1, 000 each to some of the students but did not pay any amount thereafter. Suddenly, the trust and the office bearers vanished by closing down their offices,” EOW official added.
The trust used to lure gullible parents and people through various fraudulent social welfare and public awareness programmes. The trust had collected huge amounts as deposits from the public without having any authority. The field of operation of the Trust spreads over in states like Odisha, Jharkhand, Delhi and Bihar.
“During investigation, it was found that Rs 10 lakhs while has been transferred to the account of the arrested accused Nishant Prakash Jaiswal from Vastav India Trust, Rs 11 lakhs has been transferred to the account of his wife. Similarly, Rs 4.7 lakhs have been transferred to the account of arrested accused Amar Danish apart from Vastav India Trust and lakhs of rupees has directly been transferred by the victims to his account,” stated EOW official.
The EOW sleuths during the investigation seized many incriminating documents like trust deed of Vastav India Trust, fake money receipts issued to the investors, blank cheques, six ATM cards, visiting card of Vastav India and mobile phones etc.
Earlier, in this case, two accused persons — Tanweer Nazri and Md Abdul Hasnain, the president and secretary of Vastav India Trust were arrested in December 2022.
IANS