Sai Pragati investors demand CBI probe into land fraud case

BHUBANESWAR: Investors of the Sai Pragati Assets and Properties (SPAP) and S Virgin Worldwide Concept Pvt Ltd demanded high-level inquiry by Economic Offence Wing of CBI into the land fraud case by the company here at a Press meet on Wednesday. 

“The Company at first convinced us by showing us up-to-date information, but after two year it gradually stopped its updating and later checked its operation by cheating us. It was a pre-planned fraud by the company which strategically built confidence among the investors in the beginning, but finally gave a major blow to us,” lamented an investor Aniruddh Mahapatra of Brahmapur at the Press meet here.  

On March 15 this year, hundreds of Sai Pragati investors demanding a high level inquiry into the fraud case by the company had staged a dharna in front of the State Assembly and later in their memorandum urged the Chief Minister to intervene in the matter.

The investors said the company having its office at Bapuji Nagar in the city was run by its Managing Director Debasish Mohanty, Associate Directors Nirmal Prasad Padhy, Ashwin Kumar Das, Surath Kumar Sahoo and Kamalakant Patnaik are involved in the cheating of alleged Rs 600 crore from its investors. More than 85,000 investors were affected due to the fraud, they alleged. Even the Lord Jagannath temple properties have seen sold to their customers by above said cheaters, the investors added.

They alleged that the company has not paid the promised amount to any investors from last October. Moreover, the office was closed on December 23 last year, they said. Regarding this matter, the investors had lodged hundreds of FIRs in different police stations in the city. But the police are not taking serious action in the matter, they alleged.

The investors publicly demanded the arrested Sai Pragati Company CMD Debashish Mohanty should not be given bail, the police should arrest the other associates of Mohanty, the State Government should order a high level probe into the case, confiscate the properties of the alleged company managers and to return investors’ money immediately.

Among others, investors including Abhimanyu Nayak, Aniruddh Mahapatra, Ranjita Das, Bijay Maharana and Sk Abdul Quadir were present.