Court allows Crime Branch to take Oscar chief on fresh 5-day remand

Bhubaneswar: The Special Designated Court today allowed the Crime Branch of Odisha Police to take Oscar chief Prabhas Rout on another five-day remand.

The Crime Branch had prayed before the court to take Rout on a seven-day remand. However, the court granted only custody of Rout only for five days.

Rout was produced in the court after completion of a five-day Crime Branch remand.

During the fresh five-day remand, the Crime Branch will try to extract information from Rout about Oscar’s empire and different stage shows organised by the chit-fund company in which Ollywood actors had performed, sources said.

Besides, the court allowed the investigating team to take Tara Prasad Hota, one of the three arrested directors of the company, on a three-day remand.
Notably, on Tuesday, the investigating team had arrested Taraprasad Hota, Kirti Ranjan Bastia and Abani Patnaik. Besides, a land broker doing business in Ganjam has been detained.

Meanwhile, a team of Crime Branch will visit Gujarat tomorrow and find out details about Oscar’s properties, relevant documents and depositors in the State.
Oscar had collected money from depositors through 58 branches in Gujarat on the promise of providing high returns on deposits. Three cases are pending against the chit-fund company in the western State.