Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch has arrested a fraudster for cheating a Karnataka based investor of Rs 4.80 crore on the pretext of making him a partner in Black Granite business in 2017.
One of the accused identified as Alaga Muthu Sankar, a native of Kerala, had been staying at Jeypore in Koraput. According to sources, the victim, Jagannath Rao Doddamani is working as a senior research staff in Samsung Electronics in South Korea.
In 2017, Doddamani came across an advertisement in the website, www.expatriates.com seeking investors to invest money in an upcoming south Indian movie called ‘Shankar Puram’ to be produced by one G Vijaya Sugumaran.
The advertisement was floated by A.M. Raghunath of Kottayam in Kerala. Raghunath told Doddmani that he should invest in the granite stone mining project in Odisha being run by Sugumaran instead of the movie.
Later, Doddamani along with Raghunath met Sugumaran at his office, Sri Sai Enterprises, in Madurai in Tamil Nadu where Doddamani agreed to invest Rs 30 lakhs in the Green Granite quarry project in Odisha. Subsequently, a partnership deed was signed by the wife of Doddamni and the accused Sugumaran 25 October, 2017.
Dodamani later invested a total Rs 50 lakhs in both green and black granite quarry project that would be operated from an office at Berhampur in Ganjam.
Raghunath then introduced the complainant with his own brother and accused Sankar who proposed the victim to invest in Black Granite business run by his firm, “A.M. Sankar Granite Industry” at Boriguma in Koraput.
Subsequently, the complainant fell into their trap and invested about Rs. 4.80 crores in phase manner from 2017 till October, 2020 in the process to get lease of several mines including decorative stones, coals & iron ores etc.
However, till date, he was neither granted with any such licenses nor received any return. Doddamani came to know about the cheating in 2020 and registered a case (5/21) in this regard with the EOW, 22 February this year.
During the course of investigation, the EOW also found that the accused Muthu Sankar had prepared a “series of fake letters purportedly issued by several highly placed officers of Govt. of Odisha as well as Govt. of India, pertaining to Dept. of Steel & Mines and Forest Department etc.”
The accused was Thursday sent to judicial custody by the SDJM court here.
PNN
