Malkangiri: Digital Odisha, a firm having its headquarters in Bhubaneswar, allegedly misappropriated over Rs 1 crore from the youths of four blocks of the district over last one year luring them with private jobs and at government agencies.
Apart from collecting amounts between Rs10,000 and Rs70,000 from job aspirants against massive recruitments with a monthly salary of Rs20,000, Manas Kumar Patra, director of Digital Odisha also recruited several unemployed youths as company’s agents in Kalimela, Padia, Malkangiri and Korukonda blocks to sell LED television sets and DTH equipment.
The agents were persuaded to collect Rs7,800 each from customers and given a kitbag, insurance coverage and uniforms to gain the confidence of the clients. The firm also asked agents to deposit Rs5,500 to join work and fixed a sales target of at least 60 sets of TV and DTH a month, Dhiraj Kumar Mallik, one such agent of MV-28 village of Korukonda block said.
Besides, the agents who want to work in banks and other government organisation were asked to deposit additional Rs1.5 lakh as advance. After receiving his identity card, he deposited Rs60, 000 for a government job and Rs5,500 for his kitbag and uniform, Dhiraj said.
Similarly, he also collected Rs60,000 from Biswajit Haldar of MV-79 and Rs 1.3 lakh from Jayanti Mandal of MV-112, the agent added. Prashant Kumar Samal of Bhubaneswar who is said to be a close associate of firm’s director had received the money, Dhiraj informed. Both Manas and Prashant are residents of Angul district, he said.
It was learnt that over a hundred people from Padia and Kalimela blocks have deposited between Rs20,000 and Rs1,00,00 with the firm to get LED TVs and jobs. The headquarters of Digital Odisha was shown at A/9, Mancheswar Industrial Estate and corporate office at A/204, Saheed Nagar of Bhubaneswar in the identity cards issued to the agents.
On the other hand, Manas Patra, on his visiting card, has printed the name of the organisation as Vect and React Trust of Bhubaneswar having phone numbers 9938556677 and 9438550445. However, these numbers were found out of reach when calls were made on them.
According to Dhiraj, Patra used to meet youths in a lodge at Malkangiri and had never issued any money receipt against the payments he received.
When contacted, Malkangiri SI Pradip Kumar Dharua, who is in charge of the police station, said they regularly create awareness to not trust fake firms and inform police about them. Police are yet to receive complaints against Digital Odisha and action would be taken after receiving complaints, he added.
In a related development, Digital Odisha chairman Prashant Samal reportedly told agent
Dhiraj Wednesday that he had a talk with MLA Manas Madkami at Bhubaneswar to settle all issues. However, he had to deposit Rs 15,000 with a particular account before that, Samal told him. When contacted, MLA Madkami said he neither knows the firm nor its chairman. PNN
