BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch has arrested the former president and secretary of Gandhamardan Loading Agency and Transporting Cooperative Society limited, which is engaged in loading iron ore from mines of Odisha Mining Corporation, for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 35 crore.
The society’s former president Manas Ranjan Barik and secretary Utkal Das were apprehended from Suakati in Keonjhar on Friday. Gandhamardhan Loading Agency in Suakati was registered in 2006 and engaged in loading of iron ore from the mines in the district.
The EOW said the operations of the society were monopolised by a handful of influential outsiders and they entered into a criminal conspiracy with the office-bearers to misappropriate crores of rupees between 2017 and 2024.
They forged documents related to labour costs, employment provident fund deductions, money spent towards peripheral developmental activities, infrastructural expenses and payments made to the affected people in the mining area.
The cooperative society used to charge Rs 60 per tonne from the buyer agencies to load iron ore, which was was abnormally higher than the price of any other agency. The organisation claimed to have made payments to different persons/agencies and showed other expenses without producing any supporting documents like tenders, work orders and vouchers. Such payments were not entered in registers like cash, day and attendance books, the EOW officials said.
Most of the payments amounting to crores were made by the accused persons through cash and self-cheques without collecting any payment acknowledgements. The office-bearers were found to have spent/diverted the money against the mandate of the by-laws of the society.
“During investigation, many incriminating registers, ledgers, vouchers, resolution books, special audit reports and labour payment sheets were seized. Further probe into the massive scam is continuing and the cheating amount is expected to go up,” said an EOW officer.