Bhubaneswar, Apr 20 (IANS): The Odisha Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday arrested two accused, including a MBA graduate, in connection with a Rs 4 crore online fraud case.

The arrested persons, identified as Ripan Kumar Jena and Anupam Pradhan of Balasore district, and others have cheated Rs 4 crore from 35 investors in the district on the pretext of investment in online trading, police officials said.

Jena, te MBA degree holder, is the Managing Director of Omm Agency and GRSS Greentech Pvt. Ltd, with an office at Uttareswara in Balasore.

Co-accused Pradhan is a post-graduate in Hindi. The duo, along with others, were into illegal collection of deposits from the public under the allurement of investing the same online in forex trading, buying shares and investment in crypto, promising lucrative monthly returns of 8 percent mutual profit on the invested amount, the EOW official said.

In order to win the trust of gullible investors, the accused were issuing money receipts to the depositors, executing agreements, and also issuing post-dated cheques of the company.

During the period from 2019-21, the accused persons have illegally collected more than Rs 4 crore from 35 investors of Soro area only. The number of investors and the figure of invested amount will go up after verification about the investors of other areas, the EOW said.

Initially, the accused paid the promised return to the investors for a few months and thereafter, stopped making any payments. Later, the accused absconded after closing down the offices.