ITANAGAR, Jul 16: All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) president Hawa Bagang today refuted allegations of financial fraud against him and said that he will in fact undertake legal recourse against the person for defamation in several social media platforms.
Addressing a press conference at the Arunachal Press Club, here today, Bagang said that his name has been dragged into the issue because one of his former associates Rohit Das had duped the victim while fraudulently using his firm’s name.
He also expressed his willingness to cooperate with any investigating agency to further confirm his innocence in the case.
Bagang informed that an FIR was registered regarding the case at the Itanagar PS on July 17, 2019, which later was transferred to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Itanagar. During the course of the investigation, the SIT found no connection of him in the entire case and has given him a clean chit.
Further disclosing the investigation details, Bagang said that Das had duped the victim of Rs 12.45 crore through a fake bank account opened at Vijaya Bank (Now Bank of Baroda) in the name of his firm M/s Loma Yoma Enterprises.
Informing that he had known culprit Rohit Das since his childhood and had been a business partner once for a project, Bagang said, “Das on few occasions handled some of my firm related works, and so at one point of time I gave him my firm’s documents for its registration under the PWD for government-related tender works. It was during this time that Das while breaching my trust fraudulently opened a bank account in the same name of M/s Loma Yoma Enterprises to dupe the victim in the said case.”
He informed that the fake bank account opened by Das against the nomenclature of his firm’s name is signed by another person as its proprietor. Also, during investigation of the money trail, nowhere his name or his bank accounts has come up.
During the investigation, it was also established that even the name of the other person projected as proprietor in the account details, is fake and has been created solely to dupe the victim.
He further said that his firm’s name was used only to win the trusts of the victim, and once that trust was established, the culprits opened a fake bank account for the fund transaction.
Stating that he will take legal recourse against Vidya Amarnath for defamation, Bagang said that Amarnath should have contacted him, at least once, over phone or through other means before depositing such a huge amount.
He added that had Amarnath contacted him first following the fraud instead of defaming him in social networking sites, he would have supported her and would have cooperated with her for recovery of the fund at any place and he will also help them in realizing their money from them. Bagang added.
Meanwhile, Bagang’s legal counsel advocate Marto Kato, who was also present at the conference, said that his client’s innocence in the case has been well established by the detailed investigation undertaken by the SIT.
He said that even the court disposed of an earlier defamation petition filed by his client, on the ground that there is no involvement of him in the case. A fresh FIR will be filed against all those who are unnecessarily defaming my client on social media platforms without getting into the reality of the case. Since the matter is in the court of law and could not reveal the investigation process but he said that the SIT has already investigated the case.
Meanwhile, this daily tried to get a clarification from the SIT SP Rohit Rajbhar Singh of the case but the SP said since the case is under sub judice and could not reveal detail of the investigation process.