A retired lieutenant colonel and his associate, a builder, were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years and fined Rs 1 lakh each by a court in Odisha for cheating defence personnel with the promise to provide them residential plots. If they fail to pay the fine, they will have to undergo imprisonment for one more year.

Retired Lt Col Rakesh Rana in association with builder Purna Chandra Panda had launched a scheme in Bhubaneswar in 2011-12 in the name of “Defence Intercity Vatika Association” and collected huge amounts of money from defence personnel with the assurance of providing them plots.

The duo had assured to provide residential plots to serving and retired defence personnel only. In order to gain the confidence of the defence personnel, Rana had also floated an organisation named Sainik Welfare Organisation-India (SWO-India).

An official of the economic offence wing of the Odisha crime branch on Tuesday said: “One Patitapabana Biswal had registered case against Lt Col Rakesh Rana (retired), chairman of Sainik Welfare Organisation-India and Purna Chandra Panda, managing director of Brookson Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, and others for cheating by not providing them with plots. They had also defaulted in refunding the deposit amount received from the complainant and others, who had booked plots in the ‘Defence Intercity Vatika Project’.”

They collected the money from the intending buyers between 2011-12 and 2014-15 but never gave plots to them.

“The SWO-India, collected about Rs 31.57 crore from 542 numbers of defence personnel towards cost of land, development charges and registration fees, etc. Moreover, the SWO-India represented though its chairman, Rakesh Rana, during August 2011 entered into an agreement with accused, Purna Chandra Panda, managing director of M/s Brookson Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd to purchase land for the above project,” said a media release issued by the economic offence wing.

However, the accused persons (Rana and Panda) in a criminal conspiracy hatched between themselves and others did not purchase adequate land to provide the same to the intending buyers as assured to them. They did not provide any land to the investors and misappropriated the entire amount collected from them, the release added.

“After completion of investigation of the case, a charge-sheet was submitted against the accused. The case was heard in the court of presiding officer, designated court under OPID (Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors) Act, Cuttack, and the court convicted the accused persons,” an official said.