The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch (CB) on Thursday got six days’ transit remand of arrested chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of Seashore Group Prashant Kumar Dash from a Mumbai court to interrogate him about his involvement in the multi-crore chit-fund scam in the State.
On Wednesday, the Crime Branch sleuths with the help of Mumbai police had arrested Dash from Mumbai in connection with duping small investors of crores of rupees in the Semiliguda area of Koraput district. Dash was produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Court in Mumbai on Thursday.
According to Crime Branch DIG Rajesh Kumar, a case was registered at Semiliguda police station this year against Dash for cheating investors of Rs 50 crore. On the basis of the tip-offs, the Semiliguda police and the EOW sleuths had camped in Mumbai for the past seven days to arrest Dash, who had been absconding, he added.
The police arrested Dash by tracking his mobile phone number. He was changing his locations frequently. He was staying at Silvassa, the capital of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, said a police official. But on Wednesday, the police nabbed him when he was going to meet a person near a hotel in the Fort area of the city.
The Semiliguda police would take Dash for quizzing and then the Crime Branch would take him for further interrogation. “After the interrogation, truth will come out. How his company misappropriated investors’ money will also come to the fore,” the DIG said.
last year, the EOW had booked Dash and five other directors of the company for allegedly swindling small investors of around Rs 500 crore. Notably, the Crime Branch had moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of Dash’s bail granted by the Odisha High Court on October 17, 2012.