BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch has unearthed a large inter-state gang committing financial frauds in five states including Odisha.
EOW officials said apart from Odisha, the gang also operates in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The matter came to light after a man, recently arrested for his alleged involvement in cheque cloning and swindling around Rs 9.6 crore from the account of a government trust, confessed to being a part of the gang.
The accused, Brajesh Mishra, proprietor of Mishra Enterprises and Mahakal Construction, was apprehended from Chhattisgarh on March 17 and brought to the state on a transit remand after being produced before a local court in the neighbouring state. EOW officials said he is scheduled to be produced before a designated court under the OPID Act in Balasore on March 20.
“After his arrest, EOW got important clues about the entire gang. They are doing these scams for the last four years, adopting deceitful methods from cheque cloning to multi-layering of money transfers, creating and operating multiple bank accounts, withdrawing money in different layers and using information networking,” EOW officials said.
They added that these fraudsters had been taking the help of local touts to commit the fraud. Efforts are on to apprehend other fraudsters of the gang including its kingpin, the officials said.
As per EOW officials, Mishra was arrested on the basis of a case lodged by the chief manager of a nationalised bank’s Baripada branch. Initial investigation revealed that some fraudsters produced forged/clone cheques to the bank and managed to transfer over Rs 9.56 crore in total from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Trust of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj, to two other accounts in the name of PT Constructions and Suppliers and SK Enterprises.
Later the EOW found that about Rs 1.47 crore had been transferred by PT Constructions and Suppliers to the accounts of Mishra Enterprises and Mahakal Construction belonging to Mishra. Out of this amount, Rs 5.04 crore was blocked, while another Rs 13.56 lakh lying in 33 accounts was frozen.
Previously, three accused in the case - Pomesh Tembhare, Ghanshyam Ahuja and Ajmir Mondal - had been arrested from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal in this connection, the officials said.