BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch arrested a West Bengal native for his alleged involvement in share trading scam amounting to Rs 40 crore. The accused, Amit Mandal of Bankura district, was apprehended from the neighbouring state on Wednesday. He was brought to Odisha and produced before a court in Cuttack.
The EOW said Mandal had set up a fake firm Kalpana Financial Services and duped 500 depositors in Odisha and 100 in West Bengal between 2020 and 2024. He lured the depositors to invest in share trading and avail high returns of 3.5 per cent to 7 pc every month.
Initially, he gave some amount to the investors for a few months but later stopped making the payments. Investigation revealed the accused collected more than Rs 120 crore from the investors.
He was paying the monthly returns from the successive deposits of the new investors. He has to return over Rs 40 crore to the victims, said an EOW officer.
After failing to return the money, Mandal assured the depositors in 2023 that their amounts will be reinvested in his newly-formed company Kalpamit Consultancy. However, Kalpamit existed only on paper and he absconded in 2024 after swindling crores of rupees. One laptop has been seized from Mandal. Further probe is underway, the official said.