Odisha EOW likely to question Bollywood superstar Govinda in Ponzi scam case

Bhubaneswar, Sep 14 (IANS) The Economic Offences wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch is likely to question Bollywood superstar Govinda in connection with the Rs 1,000 crore online crypto Ponzi scam.

The EOW unearthed the massive pan India scam operated by ‘STA (Solar Techno Alliance) Token’ and arrested its India head Gurtej Sigh Sidhu from Rajasthan in August this year.

EOW has also arrested, Nirod Das, the head of head Solar Techno Alliance’s Odisha team.

“We will examine the veteran actor who has attended a mega programme of the STA held in a luxurious star hotel/ banquet hall of Goa in July. More than one thousand up-line members including many from Odisha attended this meeting. Film star Govinda had also released some video promoting the STA. We will try to find out the nature of his involvement in the scam. We might use him as a witness in the case if we found his involvement limited to endorsement only,” the Inspector General EOW JN Pankaj told IANS.

He said that the EOW has to examine several other members of STA who are still at large prior to questioning Govinda, who is not on its priority list currently.

“Different teams of EOW will very soon visit Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat to arrest the absconding main associates of mastermind Gurtej including the financial and technical head of STA. Later, we will arrest the state heads of the company too,” Pankaj said.

He said that all the STA top officials have gone into hiding by switching off their mobile phones after the scam was unearthed by the Odisha Police.

“One of them also managed to flee the country so we get Look Out Circulars (LOC) issued against three of the top STA members. LOC has also been issued against David Gez, a Hungarian national, and close aide of Gurtej,” he said.

More than 10,000 people from Bhadrak, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, kendrapara and Keonjhar districts of Odisha have reportedly invested around Rs 30 crores in the ponzi scam.

STA has more than two lakh members mainly in the states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Assam.

The company based has illegally collected hundreds of crores from members sans RBI authorisation. Several persons in Nepal, Dubai and Hungary have also invested in STA.