Bhubaneswar, Jan 2: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested the prime accused in a large-scale share trading fraud involving more than ₹40 crore, officials said.
The accused, Amit Mandal of Bankura district in West Bengal, was apprehended on December 31, 2025, in connection with EOW Police Station Case No. 20 dated December 29, 2025. Mandal is the son of late Murali Mandal.
The case was registered following a complaint by Sushant Kumar Das, a resident of Khordha district, who alleged that Mandal and his associates induced him to invest in a share trading scheme by promising high monthly returns ranging from 3.5 per cent to 7 per cent. To gain the investor’s confidence, Mandal executed formal agreements and issued post-dated cheques. Das invested ₹8.5 lakh between 2022 and 2024; however, payments stopped after a few months.
During investigation, the EOW found that Mandal, operating under a fictitious entity named Kalpana Financial Services, collected deposits from nearly 500 investors in Odisha and about 100 investors in West Bengal between 2020 and 2024. The total amount mobilised is estimated to be over ₹120 crore. Officials said Mandal allegedly misappropriated the funds and failed to return investments exceeding ₹40 crore. He later floated another entity, Kalpamit Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., to further mislead depositors.
According to investigators, Mandal organised investor meetings at hotels in Angul and Bhubaneswar, executed agreements and issued cheques to build trust. The collected funds were deposited into his personal bank accounts in ICICI and HDFC banks, as well as accounts belonging to his associates. Scrutiny of one ICICI Bank account alone revealed transactions worth approximately ₹122 crore.
After his arrest, Mandal was produced before a local court in West Bengal and brought to Odisha on transit remand. He is scheduled to be produced before the Designated Court under the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Act and the Special EOW Court in Cuttack. The EOW has also seized a laptop suspected to contain details of investors and deposited amounts.
The probe is continuing, with officials verifying additional bank accounts and tracing the full extent of the fraud. Legal action has been initiated under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B, along with sections of the BUDS Act and the Information Technology Act, police said.
