Berhampur: A woman fled after allegedly cheating crores of rupees from multiple senior citizens with false investment schemes in Berhampur. A complaint has been registered in this regard at Baidyanathpur Police Station.
As per reports, the accused who was staying in a rented house at Ayodhya Nagar in the city disguised herself as the Odisha chief of Central Electricity Authority (CEA) with office at Golabandha near Berhampur and after taking people including her landlord into confidence, she allegedly lured them to invest in a lucrative investment scheme of the central government called ‘Nominee Investment Plan’.
The interesting part is that the woman showed the investors some letters seeming like official documents with Ashoka Pillar Emblem on it, so that they could easily fall prey to her evil designs.
As the unsuspecting senior citizens gave her more money in a hope to get good returns in a quick time, the accused fled at the first chance she got.
When the incident came to fore, the duped investors approached the SP to get justice and return of their money. The victims further alleged that the accused even repaid them some amount after two months in the form of interest paid.
Laxmicharan Panigrahi, one such investor said, “I deposited a total of Rs 15 lakh with her but though she returned me Rs 1.5 lakh as interest after two months of investing, she fled with rest of the amount.”
“I gave her Rs 75,000 in the first phase of investment. After several phases of investment and interest payment, I am still due to get 64 Lakh Rupees from her,” alleges another investor named Tripura Prasad Rath.
A lawyer involved in this case, Sriharsh Prasad Das revealed on the basis of an RTI report that though an organisation called Central Electricity Authority exists, it neither has its office in Golabandha nor does it have any woman employee in the name of the accused.
Asked about the issue, Berhmapur SP Pinak Mishra said, "All the victims are known to the accused. We will know exact details on what circumstance she was given money, once the accused is arrested.”