Politicians Helped Nava Diganta Spread its Ugly Wings in State
BHUBANESWAR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continued its search and seized incriminating documents from the office and residential premises of the directors of Nava Diganta Capital Services Pvt Ltd which is under the scanner for duping hundreds of investors to the tune of crores of rupees.
The CBI was trying to ascertain the transaction details of the company as well as diversion of capital. “Our primary objective is to understand the volume of investments made in the company __ paid-up capital by the shareholders and deposits made by public. This will help us know where the money went,” official sources said.
Initially, three political leaders, Mayurbhanj MP Rama Chandra Hansda and two former legislators, Hitesh Bagartti and Subarna Naik, were also appointed directors along with five others. Currently, only Kartikeya Parida, Pradeep Kumar Pattnaik and Anjan Kumar Baliarsingh are active directors.
Baliarsingh is shown as the MD of the company.
Naik, a former BJD MLA from Keonjhar Sadar, said he, along with two others, had joined Nava Diganta as it was a private limited company. He claims to have paid `60,000 as his share of paid-up capital.
“When I joined the company, it was supposed to be a construction firm but when they wanted to collect deposits from the public, I resigned,” he claims.
Nava Diganta was registered as a company in August 2011 with an authorised capital of `5 crore while its paid-up capital was `2.298 crore. “The investment of the founding members will allow us to know where their money came from. Besides, now they also have to explain the seizures made by us,” said sources.
In a span of three years, the company had three more arms __ Nava Diganta Properties Ltd, Nava Diganta Projects Ltd and Nava Diganta Agro Industries Ltd. The first two were registered as companies along with Nava Diganta Capital Services Pvt Ltd in August 2011. The agro services firm was registered in March 2012.
The general people who invested in the company were lured in by the names of the political leaders. “I had invested `60,000 in January 2013 and was assured of a return of `10,000 in a year. The agents told us that the company had political leaders on board which made our investment lucrative,” says Binay Bhushan Das. On the basis of Das’ complaint with Nayapalli Police, the CBI registered the case.
Interestingly, when the Supreme Court directed the CBI to take over investigation in the chit fund scam in May, Nava Diganta’s name featured among the 44 companies which were to be probed. Until then, no formal case had been registered against the company.