Sambalpur man loses Rs 65L in online investment scam | Bhubaneswar News
Bhubaneswar: A 37-year-old man from Badbazaar area in Sambalpur district has lodged a complaint with the cyber police station after he allegedly lost Rs 65 lakh in an online investment scam. Amia Dungdung, inspector of the cyber police station, on Friday said the company named in the FIR is involved in multiple scams across the country, and many of the perpetrators have already been arrested.The victim, identified as Ranjan Panda, alleged that the Bengaluru-based investment company had contacted him and pursued him to invest, assuring an interest of 7% on his deposit. Panda was convinced by sharing the details of another investor from Odisha. He made his first investment of Rs 2,50,000 on July 7, 2024. The company organised multiple meetings with Panda to convince him to invest more money.In online meetings, some ‘fake’ investors displayed their luxurious lifestyle after investing in the company. Panda was influenced by the success stories and invested Rs 79,60,000, out of which he got back Rs 14,60,000. In Nov 2024, he found the official website of the company stopped working. When he approached the company, he was assured that the money would be returned within 90 days. However, when he and other investors again contacted the company, the representatives started threatening they won’t get back anything if they approached the police.Recently the investors learnt from media reports that the company is involved in a scam and several of its staff have been arrested. On Tuesday, Panda lodged a police complaint at the cyber police station here against Priyaranjan Swain, Abinash Sahoo, and Ajay Sharma.Dungdung told TOI, “Complaints have been registered in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and other places in the state against the company. Two of the accused are from Odisha, and another is from Bihar. We are verifying their identities.”
