Kendrapara: A major fraud case has been registered in Kendrapara Town police station against BJD leader Ankit Jena of Mahanga, police said Saturday.
According to the complaint filed August 13, Aishwarya Pratap Jena, managing director of Bhubaneswar-based Emporia Works Pvt Ltd, former managing director Ankit Pratap Jena; Kendrapara manager Debasish Das and Hitesh Mishra allegedly defrauded the complainants of Rs48 lakh. A case (164/25) was registered at the Town police station in this connection.
The complaint was lodged by Arabind Tripathy and Ganesh Kumar Swain, proprietors of SSB Electrical at Chandi Chhak in Cuttack. They alleged that Emporia Works was executing an underground 33 KV cable-laying project in Kendrapara district since 2023 and their fi rm was working for it. Despite dues reaching Rs48 lakh, the company has failed to make payments to them, they said.
Also Read: BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik stable, likely to be discharged Monday: Hospital source
The project manager Debasish Das reportedly assured them that the pending payment would be cleared May 14 but it has not been released so far, the complainants added. They also claimed that nonpayment of the amount has made it impossible to disburse labour wages.
In a counter-complaint, project manager Das lodged a case against the two proprietors of SSB Electrical at the same police station accusing them of negligence during project execution, which allegedly caused financial losses to Emporia Works.
Police have registered a separate case (165/25) in this connection. Kendrapara Town police offi cer Dilip Kumar Sahu confi rmed the development stating that complaints from both sides have been registered. A preliminary investigation is underway in this connection, he said.
PNN