The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the State Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested three persons on the charge of defrauding customers of Rs 7 crore in the guise of providing plots to them in Bhubaneswar.
The arrestees were identified as Prafulla Kumar Sarangi, former Andhra Bank Manager and secretary of Andhra Bank Employees’ Housing Cooperative Society and Manoj Mohapatra and Ambika Prasad Mohanty, both partners of real estate firm Hindustan Developers.
Later, they were forwarded to the OPID Court in Cuttack.
The EOW arrested the accused based on the complaint of one Ratikanta Samal of Satabdi Nagar here.
The EOW said that induced by secretary of Andhra Bank Employees’ Housing Cooperative Society secretary Sarangi, Samal along with 160 investors had deposited nearly Rs 7 crore with the society for purchase of plots at the Hindustan Valley Projects located at Madanpur mouza.
After receiving the amount, Sarangi directed the partners of Hindustan Developers Mohanty and Mohapatra to register the plots. The property dealers executed sale deeds with the investors during the period 2009-10 but failed to deliver possession of the plots.
Thereafter, in spite of repeated requests by the investors, the accused did not take any steps to give possession of the plots with an ulterior motive and misappropriated their hard-earned money. Further investigation into the case is on, said the EOW.
