BHUBANESWAR: A court here on Monday awarded three years imprisonment to the Managing Director of Safex Infra India, Firoz Khan, for duping several gullible investors on the pretext of providing them higher returns on their deposited amounts. Khan had recently accepted before a court here that he swindled the money collected from gullible investors. The court also imposed a fine of `12 crore which will be paid to the cheated depositors.
Special CJM, CBI court sentenced Khan to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for two years under Section 120B of IPC, RI for two years and `5,000 fine for offence under Section 420 of IPC. Commissionerate Police had arrested Khan in 2016 from Jaydev Vihar area of the city. Police later handed over Khan to CBI, which is probing the 44 chit fund companies, including Safex Infra. In 2015, CBI had raided the offices of Safex Group of Companies at several places in the State.
In 2012, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch had arrested eight persons in connection with the Safex Infra scam. The agency had also sought permission of the Finance Department for liquidation of the assets of Safex Infra to refund the money of the duped investors as per the provisions of Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, following which some property of the tainted firm was attached.