Bhubaneswar: the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch Tuesday froze Jyotiranjan Beura alias Golden Baba’s bank accounts worth Rs 51 lakh. Police have traced seven bank accounts of the accused.
Berua was arrested December 31 on charges of duping a Delhi-based company.
Police said that they were trying to trace the movable and immovable properties of the accused, who is believed to have duped several people of crores of rupees on the pretext of arranging loans. Commissionerare Police, which had initially arrested Beura, have also seized gold ornaments weighing about 1.5 kg from a bank locker. Beura was commonly known as Golden Baba for his penchant for gold jewellery.
“We have sought help of the Income Tax department to ascertain whether the accused used to deposit tax. We are also probing the money trail and possible investments made by the accused,” said an EOW official.
Beura was initially arrested for allegedly duping a Delhi-based firm with the promise of providing him loan to the tune of Rs 110 crore. Later, more than a dozen cases surfaced against Beura in various police stations in Bhubaneswar and other parts of the state. Subsequently, the EOW took over the case January 4 to dig into the money trail.
In a related development, police Tuesday booked former state unit National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) president Itish Kumar Pardhan under Section 110 of CrPC. Pradhan was arrested January 11 for allegedly hurling eggs at police during an agitation in the city. The student wing of the Congress was staging a demonstration alleging nexus of between BJD leaders and Beura. Police said that Pradhan is involved in around a dozen of cases registered with Capital, Kharvel Nagar and Saheed Nagar police station.
