Odisha: 2 arrested by EOW for fraud of Rs. 4 cr

Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested accused persons namely Tanweer Nazri and Md. Abdul Hasnain, the respective President and Secretary of Vastav India Trust, on December 11, 2022 from Ranchi, Jharkhand.

After arrest, the accused persons were produced before the Ld. Court of JMFC, Ranchi and were brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of 48 hours transit remand.

The accused persons will be produced before the OPID Court ,Cuttack today. The above referred case is the outcome of an enquiry conducted on a petition of Sebati Mahanta and others against Vastav India Trust.

The allegation was against the President, Secretary, CMD and project in-charge of “Vastav India Trust” for duping the public and parents on the pretext of selling/supplying LED bulbs in their solar awareness program and giving prematric scholarship to the students in their ‘Chuuloo Aasman’ program to the tune of Rs.4 Cr. approx.

Subsequently, they disappeared by closing down their offices. The ‘Vastav India Trust’ registered with Sub-Registrar, Ranchi, Jharkhand, opened an office at Bomikhal, Bhubaneswar during March, 2022.

The arrested accused persons namely Tanweer Nazri and Md. Abul Hasnain being the respective President and Secretary of the said Trust, in connivance with others launched two programmes on ‘solar awareness’ and ‘pre-matric scholarship’ namely “Chuuloo Aasman”. Under solar awareness programme, they used to collect Rs.1650/- in cash from each applicant as member fee with assurance to supply them with LED bulbs.

The survey application form so provided by the trust was containing the logo of Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India which has been forged in order to win the trust of the general public.

In their pre-matric scholarship program named “Chuuloo Aasman”, the trust was offering the scholarship of Rs.1,000/- per month up to 24 months on their one-time deposit of Rs.3,000/- as membership charge. The scholarship amount was payable to the bank account opened in the name of the parents of the concerned students.

In this way, the trust collected approx. Rs.4 Cr. from more than 3500 persons, both public and parents. After taking one time membership fees, the trust initially sent Rs.1,000/- each to some students but did never pay any amount afterwards.

Suddenly, the trust and the office bearers vanished by closing down their offices. The money so collected fraudulently by the trust was misappropriated by the President, Secretary, project in charge and other officials of the trust.

The trust was inducing the gullible parents and general public in the name of social welfare program and awareness. In order to facilitate its fraudulent activities, they had appointed block coordinators and other officials in the districts like Sundargarh, Bhadrak, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bolangir, Dhenkanal etc. The trust has no authority to collect the deposits.

The field of operation of the Trust spreads over in States like Odisha, Jharkhand, Delhi and Bihar. EOW will be alerting the concerned authorities/ police of these states soon.

During investigation, many incriminating documents like trust deed of Vastav India Trust, fake money receipts issued to the investors etc. have been seized. Investigation of the case is on.