Bhubaneswar, May 10: Odisha police today carried out a state-wide raid on various deposit collection companies and seized computers and incriminating documents. The raid was conducted at 153 places.

Additional director general (ADG), crime branch, B.K. Sharma, said: “This is the first of its kind in the country. The entire police force was used for this single purpose. Before the raids, we talked to the superintendents of police and the deputy commissioners of police.”

Preparatory meetings were held over the past four days to carry out the operation in a single day. “We made the move after being flooded by complaints of people being duped by these firms,” said Sharma.

He said the crime branch had already issued advertisements in newspapers to create awareness among the people to be cautious of sham deposit collection companies.

Director-general of police (DGP) Prakash Mishra said: “The raid was conducted to seal offices of all fraudulent companies operating in the state.”

In Sambalpur, police verified documents of Sai Prakash Property Developers Limited, Sai Prashad Foods Limited and NICL India Limited.

Sub divisional police officer P.K. Mohapatra said: “Investment-related documents and other papers of the companies were verified. The step was taken to verify whether the investments of the people were being utilised properly.”

In Balasore, the police raided about 40 branches of various companies. Raids were also carried out in Jaleswar, Bhograi, Basta and Soro. In Balasore town, raids were carried out at 14 places.

“We seized computers, documents and took the branch heads along with us. We will decide the next course of action after verifying the seized articles,” said Manoj Rout, inspector in charge of Sahadevkhunta police station.

Deputy superintendent of police, Balsore district crime branch, Nagendra Nayak, said the exercise was carried out following a large number of complaints following the exposure of the Saradha scam.