Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch on Friday brought the mastermind of Rs 12 crore grocery store chain frauds from Agra and produced him before the OPID court in Cuttack. The accused, Parsuram Rajnetbhai Pal, director-cum-owner of M/s Armada Bazar Pvt. Ltd, is a native of Nagsar village under Gazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. Presently, he is residing at Narayanpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He was in judicial custody at Agra District Jail for his involvement in another case in Agra. Rajnetbhai was brought to Odisha on the strength of a production warrant issued by the Designated Court under OPID, Cuttack. A case was registered based on the written complaint of one Ruturaj Mohanty, who had alleged M/s Armada Bazar Pvt. Ltd. and its Directors Parsuram Rajnetbhai Pal and Pankaj Kumar Parida for cheating him and his relatives to the tune of Rs 1.26 crore in the name of investment with the company for establishing/opening new grocery and daily utility item marts in different cities of Odisha. The accused Pankaj Parida was responsible for the company’s work in Odisha and Jharkhand. He was earlier arrested in the case and now is in judicial custody. The company had floated five schemes namely Mini Mart, Super Mart, Hyper Mart, Mega Mart and Super Mega Mart, for the investment ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 5 crore for a return of 4 percent interest per month and 3 per cent on the billing amount. Similarly, the company had also floated three other schemes for the franchise of the marts at different places of Odisha like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Nayagarh, Bargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Parlakhemundi, Jagannathprasad, Odagaon and Nabarangpur. The company received investment with the assurance to pay 8 percent interest per month. After collecting more than Rs 12 crore from Odisha alone, the company neither set up the marts nor did return the money to the investors. Rajnetbhai has also defrauded investors in other States too like Jharkhand, J&K, UP, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra etc. in the same manner.
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