OPID court, Cuttack rejects bail petitions of two accused in STA crypto-ponzi scam
Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar had arrested two prominent top leaders of Solar Techno Alliance ( STA) Nirod Kumar Das ( Odisha Head of STA) and Ratnakar Palai of Bhubaneswar in EOW P.S Case No. 19 dated 13.06.2023 U/s. 419/420/467/468/471/120-B/ Sec. 66 – C &66-D ofIT Act, 2000/Section 6 of Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 2011.In the above noted case, both the accused namely Nirod Kumar Das and Ratnakar Palai had put forth their bail before the Court of OPID, Cuttack which was rejected by the Honorable court on 16- 09-2923 and 23-09-2023 respectively.It is worth mentioning here that the principal accused Gurtej Singh Sindhu, country head of STA is still in Judicial Custody.It is pertinent to mention here that during investigation, it was ascertained that Nirod Kumar Das, the Odisha Head of STA , had used his referral link to add 21000 down line members under him and in the process had amassed huge amount of wealth.On scrutiny of his three number of accounts, it was ascertained about Rs 31.23 Crore and cash deposit of Rs 2.10 Crore was transacted in the relevant period. He had also rented a posh office in the By Pass Chak of Bhadrak to run STA and was holding regular meetings in order to induce innocent persons to be his down line member.While in case of Ratnakar Pallai 45, is an important and upline member of STA having huge number of members below him (known as down-line members in the MLM/ Pyramid based schemes/scams).He is very close to Gurtej Singh and Nirod Das. He is an M.Tech in IT from Karnataka University, Bangalore and claims to be an international speaker, entrepreneur and investment guru. He is also propaganda head/ social media influencer of STA in Odisha.
He used to run a YouTube channel for wider publicity of this scheme. He is member of some other such dubious scams too which is under scrutiny. He also runs an institute namely ‘Learn to earn”.However after the arrest of Gurtej and Nirod, he has deliberately deleted his social media accounts. He had also visited Goa along with Nirod to participate in STA celebration.It was ascertained that he had started an academy by the name Learn2 Earn in the posh locality of IRC village ,Nayapalli , Bhubaneswar to advocate and promote the benefits of investing in STAtoken.Further during investigation, it came to surface that he had been promoting STA token with other co accused under the Banner Learn 2 Earn, In this regard, he has also spent about 1.42 lakh in anevent to promote STA token in Hotel Presidency, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar.The accused Ratnakar Palai has invested more than 60 lakhs of the ill-gotten money in purchasing plots in Bhubaneswar. On scrutiny of his personal accounts maintained in several Banks atTalcher and Bhubaneswar, including account in the name of Learn2 Earn, it was ascertained that a total transaction of 1.3 crore of Rupees has taken place in the above mention accounts in the relevant period.The accused has also been promoting STA tokens through his Youtube channel Learn 2 Earn with RatnakarPalai. In this regard, an amount of Rs 3.75 lakhs was frozen from five number of Bank accounts of RatnakarPalai.Investigation of the case is continuing.
