Bhubaneswar, Jan. 9: The chairman and two directors of Hi-Tech Group were denied bail by the second additional sessions court in connection with a case of cheating.
Chairman Tirupati Panigrahi and his relatives, Tirupati Choudhury and Madhusudan Panigrahi, were arrested by the economic offences wing of the Crime Branch on December 25 last year for cheating a man of Rs 1.80 lakh after promising to provide him with land at Sundarpada on the city outskirts.
The trio have also been booked for issuing threats to the investor. The court had sent the three of them to judicial custody till January 7.
After hearing the bail plea on January 7, the court had preserved the judgment for today. Their bail plea rejected, the trio were once again sent to Jharapada Special Jail.
Crime Branch officials said that after the cheating case against Panigrahi and his real estate company came to the fore on December 25, many people lodged complaints with the Crime Branch against Panigrahi’s real estate companies for cheating them. Officials said they had received more than 800 complaints from various people from different places in the state as well as outside.
Additional director-general of police B.K. Sharma said that though the first case against Panigrahi and his real estate firms concerned his Kalyani Vihar phase-II project, the complaints in the next phases showed that he had cheated a large number of people by floating many such projects.
Citing one example, Sharma said that under Rajdhani Estates and Promoters Private Limited, Panigrahi had floated Kalyani Vihar phase-II in 2003, in which over 17,000 applicants had invested. Of them, 280 had been provided land while around 700 were given back their money. The company cheated 16,000 investors to the tune of Rs 60 crore. Panigrahi would need around 400 acres if each person got their share of the promised 1,200 square feet.
Panigrahi’s lawyer Dharanidhar Nayak said he would move high court for his client’s bail. He also said a petition had been filed in the high court against the seizure of the bank accounts, as the funds were used for medical purposes and the Crime Branch action would affect the health service provided by Hi-Tech Group.
Sources said the hearing for the bail plea in another case against Panigrahi would start tomorrow.
