An economic offender, facing a lookout circular from the Bureau of Immigration (BOI), has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Odisha Police. He had allegedly deceived investors to the tune of Rs 600 crore in six states by luring them hefty returns through share market investments.

The accused, Saiyyad Jiyajur Rahaman (47), a resident of Hooghly district in West Bengal, was detained by BOI at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata, on his return from Dubai. Later, the EOW took him into remand.

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The accused was produced before the Designated Court under the OPID Act, Cuttack, and the court subsequently forwarded him to jail custody.

Earlier, the EOW took up the case after Arun Kumar Pattanaik of Dhenkanal district lodged a complaint against Rahaman, the proprietor of the LFS Broking & PMS Services. The accused allegedly duped Patnaik and his relatives of more than Rs 20 lakh in the name of share trading and paying monthly interest of 2% on the invested amount till the final return of the capital amount. It was also alleged that he duped hundreds of investors in Odisha of the amount running in crores.

Upon investigation, it was found that the arrested accused, Saiyad Jiyajur Rahaman, is the proprietor of LFS Broking and PMS services. Previously, he served as the Director of LFS Broking Private Limited, a company registered with the Registrar of Companies (ROC), Pune, Maharashtra, and authorised by SEBI. Subsequently, he established a similar-sounding entity, “LFS Broking and PMS Service (portfolio management service)”, to operate as a broker in share trading.

By befooling the general public (who were under the impression that they were depositing money in LFS Broking Pvt. Ltd.), the accused collected crores of rupees for share trading in the account of LFS Broking and PMS Service.

During the investigation, it was uncovered that the accused had collected over Rs 600 crore from the public in states like Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Gujarat through the unauthorised account of LFS Broking and PMS Services in the name of share trading instead of the authorised account of M/s LFS Broking Pvt. Ltd. Additionally, to attract more investors, the accused promised to pay an additional 2% monthly interest on the invested amount. After paying some initial monthly returns of share trading and additional interest, the accused stopped making any further payments and has been absconding since July 2023. He collected around Rs 100 crore from investors in Odisha alone.