Two fraudsters have been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of Odisha police for allegedly duping people from tribal pockets of Jharkhand, Bihar and Delhi by promising pre-matric scholarships to meritorious students.
The accused Amar Danish and Nishant Prakash Jaiswal floated ‘Vastav India Trust’ and misled people of doing social service. Gullible parents of poor students were cheated of Rs 4 crore, police said on Wednesday.
“The duo was arrested from Jharkhand,” a police official said.
The two in connivance with others launched two programmes on solar awareness and pre-matric scholarship namely ‘Chuuloo Aasman’.
Under these programmes, they collected Rs 1,650 from each applicant as member fee with assurance to supply them with LED bulbs, they said.
The accused also used the forged logo of the Ministry of MSME in the forms given by them to win the trust of people.
“The trust formed by the accused offered scholarship of Rs 1,000 per month up to 24 months on their one-time deposit of Rs 3,000 as membership charge. In this way, the trust collected approximately Rs 4 crore from more than 3,500 people,” a senior police official said.
In order to facilitate its fraudulent activities, the accused also appointed block coordinators and other officials in Sundargarh, Bhadrak, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bolangir, Dhenkanal districts of Odisha, he said.
The official said the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has alerted the authorities concerned of other states.