Cuttack: After grilling Bollywood film
producer Nasir Khan for three days, Orissa crime branch today
said many influential people from the state are involved in
the Rs 500 crore Balasore multi-level marketing scam.
"We have got definite evidence indicating involvement
some bank and government officials of Balasore, Sambalpur,
Rourkela, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in the scam. We plan to get
them into the purview of investigation," said crime branch DSP
P K Panda, heading a five-member team probing the scam.
Panda further indicated that they are at the final
stage of investigation and would soon file the charge sheet
seeking the trial of the case to be taken up by the fast track
court for a speedy disposal of the case.
The matter would have reached its judicial conclusion
much earlier but for pending cases in courts the result was
delayed, Panda maintained.
"We are hopeful that the investors of the state who
had invested their hard-earned money in the fraudulent
marketing companies would get back some of their amounts
soon," he said adding that the crime branch police have
already freeze accounts of these fake companies showing
deposits of over Rs 191 crore.
Moreover, the investigating police officers have also
traced another huge amount of Rs 40 crore which was diverted
from these accounts into share market.
More than two lakh investors of Orissa, particularly
from Balasore district, had invested around Rs 1000 crore in
theses companies with the hope of making speedy money, sources
said.
Nasir Khan, the alleged kingpin of the scam, however,
claimed that he had no role in this cheating case. "I am
innocent and I hope I will come out unscathed in this case,"
Khan told reporters after he came out from the High Court
following the hearing of the case.
Allowing the prayer of the crime branch, the State
High Court today allowed the former to interrogate Nasir Khan
and his associate Sayeed Ahmed again for three more days in
the first week of February.
The case has been posted for next hearing on February
5 while the police are allowed to examine the accused on
February 4, 5 and 6, the HC said.
-PTI
