Troubles for Oscar chit fund company chief Prabhas Rout, who is on police remand now, and certain Odia film stars escalated further as 15 depositors from Maharashtra and Gujarat filed fraud complaints against him with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch here on Friday .
According to sources, the Oscar company had collected money from depositors through 58 branches in Gujarat on the promise of providing high returns on deposits.
Some duped investors from Maharashtra told reporters here that Odia cine stars like Uttam Mohanty, Papu Pompom (Tattwa Prakash Satpahty) and Archita had encouraged them to make investment in the Oscar company.
“As we like our Odia cine stars, we believed them and deposited our hard-earned money in the Oscar company. We have lost the money, for which they should be held responsible,” they said.
They also said that Prabhas Rout, Muna Patra and Prasant Sethi had promised them of return of double amounts of deposited money within two to three years.
Meanwhile, EOW teams interrogated Prabhas and Oscar’s Gujarat Branch director Tara Prasad Hota for the second day.