The Special Designated Court for chit fund on Wednesday allowed the Crime Branch to take Oscar chit fund chairman Prabhas Rout on a fresh five-day remand and firm director Tara Prasad Hota on a three-day remand.
The Economic Offences Wing team of the Crime Branch had earlier produced Rout on completion of his five-day remand and three directors, who had been arrested on Tuesday, at the court on Wednesday afternoon and prayed the court to grant a further seven-day remand for Rout and five-day remand for Tara Prasad Hota, who was director at the Oscar firm’s Surat branch.
The two other arrested directors are Kirti Bastia and Abani Patnaik. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) teams arrested them at different places in Bhubaneswar and Puri.
Meanwhile, the EOW has detained a land mafia, who was supplying land to Oscan chit fund chief Prabhas Rout, according to sources.
Earlier in the day, Crime Branch Special DGP BK Sharma had interrogated Prabhas Rout and all the arrested directors.
So far, the EOW has found that Prabhas has 19 buildings and plots in Gujarat and seven in Maharashtra. As many as three cases are pending against the Oscar firm in Gujarat.
An EOW would leave for Gujarat to conduct an investigation into the business network of Prabhash there.
The Oscar firm has allegedly duped investors of Rs230 crore in three States, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Sources said the EOW is now trying to establish a link between many Ollywood actors and the Oscar company as Prabhas has already produced some Odia films.
There are some scenes in the film Balunga Toka in which leading actors Anubhab Mohanty and Meenaketan have talked highly of the Oscar firm.
Meanwhile, Tattwa Prakash Satpathy alias Popu Pompom, the leader actor in the film Rangila Toka has confessed to the media that he had borrowed Rs3.94 lakh from Prabhas Rout and has already repaid the same.