BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch (CB) on Friday submitted a proposal for confiscation of the assets of City-based Sai Pragati Group of Companies which is reported to have cheated its investors to the tune of Rs 10 crore.
In its ad interim attachment proposal to the Finance department, the EOW has listed 47 acres of land that the company owned in Puri, Bhubaneswar and Khurda apart from `2.77 crore in 14 different bank accounts, ADG, CB, B K Sharma said.
The company, which operated mainly in Bhubaneswar and its outlying areas, floated two schemes - an investment scheme for landed property with a buy-back arrangement and an SMS scheme under which customers were asked to send text messages to promote the products of the company and get incentives in exchange.
Initially, the investors were paid returns on their deposits, but after 2011, the company started defaulting on the payments, EOW, DIG, Rajesh Kumar said. Following a complaint with Capital Police Station, its head Debashis Mohanty was held.
Given the spread of business and depositor base, the EOW took over the case later and tried to locate the assets which took time.
Most of the real estates were in the name of directors, top executives and the firm.
“The volume of land and their location would fetch good value in the market once the assets go in for liquidation,” he said.