Realtor held for plotting schemes and minting money in Bhubaneswar

Amidst all the brouhaha over the chit fund scam, the Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested a City-based realtor Narayan Nayak for a Rs 50 crore fraud.

Nayak’s Umamami Constructions Ltd is accused of duping several hundreds of  people, including government officials, who paid the firm for plots in and around the Capital, but were cheated. His wife is also a director in the firm.

The CB has been keeping an eye on Nayak’s movements for the last three months during which complaints have been pouring in.

Currently, the Economic Offences Wing has at least 200 complaints against the alleged frauds committed by Nayak, who earlier worked in Hi Tech Group, primarily a real estate firm whose chairman Tirupati Panigrahy is behind bars on similar charges of cheating.

Nayak started his own firm about four  years back after quitting his job with Hi Tech. During this period, he is believed to have floated plotted schemes and minted money. It was Panigrahy’s firm where he is stated to have learned the tricks of the trade.

Unlike Panigrahy who dealt in small deals with value estimated at even `50,000, Nayak offered plots at `2 lakh and above. “After the complaints came in, he lied low and we kept a surveillance on him for about three months before arresting him. Now we are expecting more complaints to come our way,” Additional Director General of Crime Branch, B K Sharma, said.

Of the 200-odd complaints, a substantial chunk formed government officials, also in the rank of Under Secretary. Once these officials learned about the fraud, they filed petitions with the Home department which forwarded them to the Crime Branch. In fact, a number of customers also created online fora to lodge their grievances against the firm.

Nayak also invested in film production through his company Umamani Visual Creations. Since 2009, when he made the foray, the company produced two films __ “Prem Rogi” and “Prema Adhei Akhyara” __ both of which did not do well at the box office.

DIG, Crime Branch, Rajesh Kumar said Nayak’s investment in films is also under scanner.

He has been booked under Sections 420, 406, 467, 468, 471 and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code. The CB has also secured two-day remand of the realtor.