The Odisha Police has arrested a man in West Bengal’s Bankura district on charges that he and his associates conned people into investing ₹120 crore for high returns before he disappeared, the Economic Offences Wing of the state police said on Friday.
EOW arrested Amit Mandal, a resident of Bankura district, on December 31 in connection with the elaborate fraud. He was produced before a Bengal court and brought to Odisha on a transit remand.
The racket started to unravel after Sushant Kumar Das of Khordha district filed a complaint alleging that Mandal and his associates lured him into investing ₹8.5 lakh between 2022 and 2024. To win his confidence, the accused signed agreements and issued post-dated cheques.
“The accused initially paid returns for a few months but later stopped payments and went missing ,” an EOW official said.
Das subsequently discovered that Mandal had allegedly collected crores of rupees from several investors across Odisha and misappropriated the funds.
Preliminary investigation revealed that between 2020 and 2024, Mandal and his associates lured 500 investors from Odisha and 100 from West Bengal to pour money into their share trading schemes.
EOW officials said Mandal organised meetings at hotels in Bhubaneswar and Angul to hook investors. Agreements and post-dated cheques were used to build trust.
Investigators found that Mandal collected money in the name of a non-existent entity, Kalpana Financial Services, and diverted funds through accounts linked to Kalpamit Consultancy Private Limited and personal accounts of his associates.
Officials said scrutiny of a single ICICI Bank account has revealed transactions worth approximately ₹122 crore. Other bank accounts are being verified.
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