BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch will seek remand of former MLA and senior leader of YSR Congress Party Malla Vijay Prasad in connection with Wellfare Buildings and Estates Pvt Ltd chit fund scam in Odisha.
EOW will apply for Prasad’s remand in Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors Court in Cuttack on September 13 for questioning the accused to ascertain whether Wellfare Buildings and Estates had opened its offices in other parts of Odisha apart from Bhubaneswar, Narasinghpur (in Cuttack district) and Nayagarh. The agency will probe the financial trail of the ponzi firm and if the money collected fraudulently from the investors was utilised by Prasad to produce Telugu films under the banner of Welfare Creations. Besides, the sleuths will find out if any other official of the firm was engaged in Odisha to con the investors.
The former Visakhapatnam West MLA, who is the managing director of Wellfare Buildings and Estates, was arrested from his residence at Seethammadhara in Andhra Pradesh on Monday. Prasad, currently chairman of Andhra Pradesh Education and Welfare Infrastructure Development Corporation, and two directors of the firm are accused of duping more than 150 depositors to the tune of over `2 crore in Bhubaneswar, Narasinghpur and Nayagarh between 2009 and 2014.