Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch Tuesday arrested a 29-year-old man on charges of defrauding several NGOs of lakhs of rupees.
Sudhir Sahoo of Bagoi under Kujanga police limits in Jagatsinghpur district, the managing director of M/s Rudhitapa Institute of Technology & Managements Private Limited (RITM), has been taken into custody on the basis of an EOW case (6/19) registered under sections 420, 406, 467, 468, 471, and 120B of the IPC, a senior EOW official said.
The official said Sahoo had collected huge sum of money from several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the pretext of facilitating attractive remunerations for imparting various skill development programmes. However, he did not keep his words.
“The fraud came to the fore after Bijaya Kumar Mohapatra, secretary of Harijan Adivasi Mahila Samiti (HAMS)—an NGO in Nayagarh, approached the EOW informing the misappropriation,” the official pointed out.
About the modus operandi, the official said Sahoo had opened his office—RITM—at Saptasati Vihar in Palasuni area here and lured NGOs engaged in imparting skill development training programmes with the false assurance that his company is a franchisee of two Central government organisations—National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology and Khadi Village Industries Commission— and it provides training. The NGOs would also get post-training remuneration by the accused company under Corporate Social Responsibility scheme, the official explained.
“This apart, Sahoo has also collected training fees from the NGOs on the promise to provide six-time more than that of the deposited amount after completion of the training. Investigations so far have revealed that Sahoo had cheated 15 NGOs to the tune of Rs 62,12,311,” the official said adding that the probe is on and the misappropriated amount may exceed Rs 1 crore.