Police raids Odia daily 'Sambad' office on loan fraud allegation
Bhubaneswar (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police raided the office of leading Odia daily Sambad, owned by senior BJD leader and Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, officials said.
The raids were conducted by separate teams of EOW on Monday after the investigating wing registered a case under different sections of the IPC including 420 (cheating) and 120-B (conspiracy), an official statement said, adding that the sleuths seized important documents.
In a statement, Sambad clarified that they fully cooperated with the enforcement agency and termed the entire issue "a clear case of political vendetta and an attack on the freedom of the press."
The ruling BJD on September 12 had removed Patnaik from the post of party's vice-president after he wrote certain editorial pieces (on August 8 and August 27) and made statements on television channels raising questions on the rise of bureaucratic influence in the government and the party.
The case has been registered following allegations that a large number of employees of Sambad were forced to take personal loans under threat.
The loan amount running into crores of rupees was not given to the employees but allegedly used by their employer company Eastern Media Limited Bhubaneswar, the statement said.
The case was registered on September 16 this year against Baijyanti Kar (HR Manager), Soumya Ranjan Patnaik (Editor) and others following a complaint by Asim Mohapatra, an ex-employee of Sambad/Eastern Media Limited Bhubaneswar.
Mohapatra, in his complaint, made serious allegations of bank loan fraud involving cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation.
He was allegedly forced by the accused to sign some bank loan forms against his will and paying capacity, officials said.
He was allegedly threatened that if he did not follow the diktat, he would lose his job. Under this threat and pressure, he was forced to sign many blank forms/documents including some blank cheques by the accused persons, the EOW said in the FIR.
The former employee said he did not know the details, but later came to know that a loan of Rs 5 lakh was taken in his name but it was actually used by Sambad/Eastern Media Limited, Bhubaneswar.
"He did not get a single penny out of this loan. He was forced to sign for such loans on two different occasions in two different banks," the EOW statement said.
"More than 300 employees of Sambad/Eastern Media limited were forced to sign on forged documents and about Rs 50 crore have thus been fraudulently secured by Soumya Ranjan Patnaik using these forged papers," the EOW statement said.
During the course of the investigation, the EOW said some vital witnesses have been examined.
"During the search in Sambad office, a number of incriminating documents have been collected. So far, 15-20 ex-employees of Sambad have come forward with complaints of such forceful loans taken against their names using forged documents," the EOW said.
Meanwhile, Sambad in a statement said they fully cooperated with the enforcement agency and provided all documents as per their request.
"We are fully committed to further cooperating in the investigation as we have nothing to hide and believe there is no truth to the allegations," the statement said, adding that they were yet to get a copy of the FIR.
The statement added that while the press release by EOW states that Mohapatra filed the complaint on September 16, he had allegedly taken the loan in 2015, which raises serious questions about the timing, veracity and mala fide intent of the complaint.
"Considering the critical questions raised by Sambad regarding the functioning of the government, this entire issue is a clear case of political vendetta and an attack on the freedom of the press," the statement added.
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Rupee settles 1 paisa higher to close at 94.15 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee settled with gains of just one paisa to close at 94.15 against the US dollar on Monday, as rising global uncertainty, escalating tensions in West Asia and soaring crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiments.
Forex traders said the INR/USD pair pared its initial losses, but the overall bias remains negative as FII sell-off and elevated crude oil prices restricted the gains for the local unit.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 94.25 against the US dollar, and touched an intraday high of 94.11 and a low of 94.28 against the greenback during the day.
At the end of Monday's trading session, the rupee was quoted at 94.15, registering a gain of just 1 paisa over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee extended its losing streak for the fifth day in a row, depreciating 15 paise to close at 94.16 against the US dollar.
"The rupee snapped a five-session losing streak, rebounding in tandem with a rally across regional currencies. However, the mood remains apprehensive as the market braces for a potential RBI intervention around 94.30 and higher crude oil prices," said Dilip Parmar – Senior Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
On the charts, the USDINR pair has reclaimed its upward momentum, carving out a classic bullish structure of higher highs and lows on the daily time frame, he said, adding that for the coming sessions, 93.80 serves as a support, with 94.40 acting as the primary hurdle.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.21 per cent at 98.32.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 2.36 per cent at USD 107.82 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 639.42 points to settle at 77,303.63, while the Nifty surged 194.75 points to 24,092.70.
Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,151.48 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, India's forex reserves jumped by USD 2.362 billion to USD 703.308 billion during the week ended April 17, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.
In the previous reporting week, the forex kitty had increased by USD 3.825 billion to USD 700.946 billion.
