About 300 tribal women of Sundargarh have allegedly been duped by a couple as the latter has taken about Rs 20 lakh from them by assuring of investing the money in a rice mill project and giving them lucrative return.
Marsalan Surin and his wife Israni Surin reside at Birmitrapur area in Sundargarh. As per the FIR lodged in Birmitrapur police station on June 20, Marsalan and Israni had lured some tribal women of Brahamanimara, laokathi, Gandhi Road and Kaidaiba in Birmitrapur that they would open a rice mill at Brahmanimara in which they will give employment to local women. The couple had further lured the women that if the women invested money in proposed rice mill, they would also get their share of profit. Marsalan and Israni had targeted the women member of Jyoti SHG , Mariam SHG and Jagannath SHG and had lured them by telling them about rice mill project.
When the poor tribal women had showed their interest, the couple had played key role in giving them loan from HDFC, l&T Finance and Sundargarh Central Cooperative Bank. After getting the loan amount, the tribal women had handed over their money to the couple for investment in rice mill project. To win trust, the couple initially deposited interest amount of all loan taken women in the bank. Seeing this, other women of SSG also showed their interest for investment and the couple also helped them to get the loan and took their loan amount.
According to sources, about 300 women had given over Rs 20 lakh to the couple for investment in the rice mill. To win more trust, Marslan and Israni had also showed the women a land map where the rice mill project would come up. But after some days, all the women noticed there was no sign of construction of rice mill and the couple had stopped depositing interest amount of loan in the bank. When the women asked the couple about the rice mill, the couple began to take one plea after another. Thereafter the couple had left Birmitrapur and settled in Rourkela.
The Birmitrapur police called Marsalan and interrogated him but he told that his wife was involved in the case and he did not know the whereabouts of his wife. Meanwhile, on Monday, the victim women met Rourkela Superintendent of Police Anirudh Singh and narrated how they had been duped. Rourkela SP advised the the tribal women to meet Sundargarh SP as Birmitrapur comes under Sundargarh police.
The victim women are now planning to meet Sundargarh SP to get justice.