CBI files charge sheet against CMD of Seashore Grp of Cos

The CBI today filed a charge sheet against the CMD of Seashore Group of companies Prashant Kumar Dash and others in the multi-crore chit fund scam at the special CBI court here in Odisha.
Besides Prashant Kumar Dash, the 276-page charge sheet named his brother Pravat Dash and middleman Subhankar Nayak, and accused the company of swindling Rs 578.20 crore.
Charges under sections of the IPC, including 120(B), 409, 420 and sections 4, 5, 6 of the Prize Chit and Money Circulation (Banning) Act, 1978 have been slapped against the accused persons, CBI officers said.
Dash, who was earlier arrested by the state Crime Branch from Mumbai on June 20, 2013 was handed over to the CBI under Supreme Court order.

On November 18 last year, the CBI had arrested Subhankar, the land broker, whose house in Chandrama Apartments in Kharavela Nagar was raided by the agency. The CBI had also seized a diary with names of senior police officers and bureaucrats, who allegedly received money from Seashore through Nayak.
The CBI had arrested Pravat Dash, Prashant's brother on January 24 accusing him of embezzling company funds to the tune of Rs three crore.

The charge sheet also named two companies - Seashore Securities and Seashore Fund Management, which cheated investors by collecting money and promising high returns.
This apart, the investigating agency has also slapped charges against 13 cooperative societies run by the company.

The charge sheet contains depositions of 456 witnesses along with a list of document seized by the agency during the probe.
This was the fifth preliminary charge sheet filed by the CBI in the multi-crore chit fund scam in Odisha.