Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch today arrested Gatikrushna Dash (48), the director of a Bhubaneswar –based real estate company on charges of duping land buyers to the tune of Rs 5 crore.
Though Gatikrushna was inducted as the director of M/s Shreya Infrastructure Services Ltd in 2014, he was signing the agreement with intending purchasers of flats prior to that as ‘authorised signatory’ of the Company. EOW officials informed that Gatikrushna entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Managing Director of the Company, Himanshu Sekhar Nayak and other officials who were arrested in January following complaints by one Debadutta Routray.
As per the complainant, Himanshu Nayak had set up an office at Saheed Nagar in Bhubaneswar in 2014 and lured customers by offering studio apartments in the name of ‘Shree Kshetra Kalinga Kutira’ in Puri. As the company had earmarked to sell each apartment at a cost of Rs 9.50 lakh, the complainant Routray and other prospective buyers had deposited a sum of Rs 5 crore between 2014 and 2015.
EOW officials further stated that Gatikrushna Dash had executed agreements with the buyers to hand over possession of flats within three years from the date of agreement. However, the company failed to provide the flats while its director and managing director misappropriated the collected amount.
Based on the complaint filed by one of the duped buyers, EOW had subsequently arrested the managing director Himanshu Sekhar Nayak on January 3 and Ramachandra Patra, the managing director of Real Value Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd on January 30. Both the accused are in judicial custody since then.