Two nabbed from Ranchi for duping people of ₹4 crore

Bhubaneswar: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state crime branch on Tuesday arrested two senior functionaries of a Ranchi-based company for allegedly duping depositors in the state of Rs 4 crore on the pretext of offering a pre-matric scholarship programme.
The accused were identified as Tanweer Nazri and Mohammed Abdul Hasnain, who were the president and the secretary of Vastav India Trust, respectively. They were arrested in Ranchi and brought to Odisha after being produced in the court of the judicial magistrate first class, Ranchi.
Registered in Ranchi in 2010, Vastav India Trust opened its zonal office in Bomikhal area of Bhubaneswar in March. The firm hired people for the posts of district, block and panchayat coordinators in Sundargarh, Bhadrak, Nayagarh, Mayurbhanj, Balasore Kandhamal, Balangir, Nabarangpur and Dhenkanal.
The employees were asked to organise meetings in their areas and sensitise people about the company’s two schemes -- sale of LED bulbs at cheaper rates and a pre-matric scholarship programme named Chhulo Aasman (touch the sky). In the first scheme, the firm offered six costly LED bulbs at Rs 1,650 and in the second, a monthly scholarship of Rs 2,000 for two years on a one-time deposit of Rs 3,000.
The pre-scholarship scheme attracted most of the people, who started depositing Rs 3,000 with the trust. To build trust among the depositors, the firm even paid Rs 2,000 as monthly scholarship amount to around 100 people and circulated their feedback on social media.
“Many people were attracted towards the fraudulent offer and deposited Rs 3,000. However, the firm showed such investments as donation in the receipts given to the depositors. The company fraudulently used the logo of Union ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) on its forms to dupe people,” EOW’s deputy inspector general J N Pankaj said.
Between April and October, around Rs 1.5 crore was deposited in the firm’s bank account in Ranchi. The trust closed its office in Bhubaneswar in September and its office-bearers remained incommunicado. EOW said most of the employees hired by the firm had no idea about its ulterior motive.
The probe agency said they verified from their Ranchi counterpart and found that the company allegedly cheated many people in Jharkhand, too.