BHUBANESWAR: Managing director of Ponzi firm Green Ray International Limited (GRIL) Mir Sahiruddin died of suspected cardiac arrest at Special Jail in Jharpada area here in the wee hours of Sunday. He was 47 and was lodged in ward number - 10.
Special Jail officers told The New Indian Express that Sahiruddin collapsed inside the toilet after 4.30 am and he was rushed to Capital Hospital at about 5 am where the doctors declared him brought dead. He was lodged in jail in February 2017.
"Sahiruddin was not having any health issues but he possibly collapsed after suffering a sudden heart attack," said a jail officer. He was facing trial in seven chit fund cases registered against him in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Hyderabad.
"Police had visited the spot to investigate the matter and more details will emerge after receiving his postmortem report. Further investigation into the matter is continuing," said an officer of Laxmisagar police station.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Sahiruddin on February 3, 2017 after he managed to evade arrest for nearly three years. A native of Balasore district, Sahiruddin was hiding with his family in Nigeria. He had entered India on a Bangladesh passport by impersonating as one Ahmed Hussain and he was arrested from Kolkata.
GRIL is accused of duping nearly Rs 2,000 crore from unsuspecting investors of Odisha and 13 other States on the pretext of providing them higher returns in a short span of time.
On September 28, 2015, the central agency's officers had carried out searches at different branch offices of the ponzi firm. The searches were conducted at 13 places in Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Khurda and Nayagarh districts. Corporate office and houses of the company's officials in Jaleswar were also searched simultaneously.
During the searches, CBI seized documents related to the chit-fund scam and schemes floated by the company. GRIL dealt in gold and silver trading and it possessed nearly 20.68 acre of land in Balasore district, which was earlier confiscated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch.