Balasore, Dec 27 (Representative) Special Judge Odisha Protection of Interest of depositors (OPID) court Biswajit Das on Tuesday convicted four accused involved in a multi-level marketing scam and awarded them various quantum of jail terms and penalties. The convicts associated with the Ponzi firm Sastra Enterprises Pvt. Limited were tried under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, criminal conspiracy, among other charges. Those arrested are V Sampath, MD of the company, B Mallikarjun Raju, its board of director member, Aadasiva Nayak and Tapan Kumar Barik. While holding them guilty in the scam, the court awarded seven years sentence and a fine of Rs.4,21,000 each to Sampath and Raju. The other two Nayak and Barik were awarded with 3 years RI and a fine of Rs 60,000 each. However ,another accused tried in the case was acquitted.
The case was registered by Baripada police in October 2010, on the complaint of an investor Khirod Chandra Barik and investigated. The complainant alleged that the ‘Sastra Enterprises Pvt. Limited’ who collected funds promising them high returns and other benefits having a business office in Baripada had duped a large number of investors. The office of the company was closed down by the management and they fled when the investors demanded their returns. As many as over 10,000 investors including 1357 of Mayurbhanj district were affected by the scam. The money involved in the scam was nearly Rs 22 crore while in the State in Mayurbhanj district alone the amount was estimated to be nearly Rs 4.2 crore.