BHUBANESWAR: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch here on Thursday arrested a mines businessman from Koraput district for allegedly cheating an NRI from South Korea of Rs 4.8 crore on the pretext of helping him to carry out mining business in Odisha.
The accused was identified as Alaga Muthu Shankar, who owns a mining firm at Jeypore in Koraput district. Shankar originally belonged to Kerala. The EOW action followed a complaint lodged by the duped NRI, Jagannath Rao Doddamani of Karnataka. Rao works as a senior research staff in a leading electronics company in South Korea.
Rao had come across an online advertisement floated by Shankar’s brother A M Raghunath for investment in a movie namely “Shankara Puram” in 2017. Rao evinced interest to invest and contacted Raghunath. However, Raghunath insisted Rao to invest in mines business in Odisha for high return. Raghunath introduced Rao to his brother Shankar.
“The unsuspecting Rao gave Rs 4.8 crore to Shankar between 2017 and 2020 to start granite and iron ore mining in Odisha. Shankar had assured Rao to help him get the mining lease and requisite clearance and permissions from the government. But he reneged on his promise and cheated Rao,” an EOW officer said.
The probe agency found that Shankar prepared a series of forged authorisation letters by misusing the logo of the steel and mines department and forest and environment department to cheat Rao. “The forged letters highlighted different clarifications sought by different government agencies for getting prospecting licence for the mines in the names of Rao and his wife. The accused also prepared fake bank instruments as well as a false application for license of mines in the name of complainant and his wife,” the EOW officer said.