Odisha EOW Raids Sambad Office Over Allegations of Loan Fraud

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police Crime Branch’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Monday conducted a raid on the offices of the daily newspaper, Sambad, in response to allegations of loan fraud.

The allegations stemmed from a former employee of the newspaper, who accused Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the Editor of Sambad, and Baijayanti Kar, the Human Resources (HR) head of the media house, of orchestrating a loan fraud scheme in his name without his knowledge.

According to the complaint, a loan of Rs 5 lakh was obtained by creating a fake account in the employee’s name. The complainant also claimed that several other employees had fallen victim to similar fraudulent activities within the media house.

Earlier, EOW officials had issued a notice to Baijayanti Kar, the HR head, who allegedly did not respond to it. Consequently, EOW carried out the raid on the Sambad office.

In connection with the investigation, the publisher of the media group, Kamalakant Mohapatra, was questioned by EOW officials on Sunday, although he declined to comment on the matter.