Bhubaneswar, Sept. 12: The economic offence wing of the crime branch today conducted raids on the offices of a real estate-cum-finance company following allegations of illegal monetary transaction and detained two persons.
The company, which has branches at 12 places in the state, deals in real estate, construction, investment, IT solutions, insurance broking, stock broking and financial consultant services and media. Officials said the company was cheating people after luring them to invest in its various projects for heavy returns.
The crime branch seized a large number of documents, computers and hard disks during the raid. While one team of the economic offence wing raided the Bomikhal office of the company today, two other teams conducted raids at Berhampur and Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.
The officials said they had come across allegations that the company did not pay its customers the high rates of interest that it had promised. After verifying the allegations, the economic offence wing found it true and registered a case.
“We registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and under sections 4,5,6 of The Prize Chits And Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. Accordingly, we conducted raids today on the offices of Safex Infra India Limited that has several wings,” said a senior crime branch official.
Additional director general of police in charge of crime branch B.K. Sharma said the company was luring people to invest in its various projects by promising high interest rates. “We have seized many documents and are verifying these evidences and questioning its officials,” said Sharma.
The company, which had been set up in 2010, has a strong base in southern Odisha.
“The company was duping people promising them high returns with an interest rate of more than 20 per cent. People used to invest in its various projects under direct investment or in its other services such as insurance broking, stock broking or real estate and construction projects,” said an officer.
The company also had an IT solutions wing through which it provided IT service to its clients, but this service had recently been stopped.
While the managing director of the company Firoz Khan was absent during the raid, vice president of the company Deepak Sahu has been detained by the crime branch officials.
Sahu dismissed allegations of the company cheating its customers. He said that the crime branch raid was a routine check by the officials. “We have done nothing wrong. Let the officials check and verify everything,” he said.
Last month, the crime branch had raided another financial company at Ashok Nagar on charges of illegal money circulation and cheating its customers.
In July, the crime branch also had conducted raids on another financial company.
