1,000 Silver Coins of Seashore Seized

In a significant haul, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) seized a quintal of silver, in form of coins, belonging to Seashore Group from a private bank’s locker here on Saturday.Following disclosures made by company’s chief Prashant Dash during the recent interrogations, the EOW traced the locker to the private bank’s Cuttack Road branch. It was broken open by the sleuths on Saturday evening and 1,000 coins, each weighing 100 grams, were found. The company’s name was engraved on the coins. The current value of the seizure is estimated at about `45 lakh.

“It reveals that converting cash into metal is easy and stashing them away is convenient,” said Additional Director General of Police, Crime Branch, B K Sharma. The locker, where the silver was stored, was huge and the coins were kept in different bags.

What Dash planned to do with the metal is yet to be known. DIG, EOW, Rajesh Kumar said coins were clearly purchased with public money and investors certainly can get relief if court directs liquidation of the same to pay them off from the proceeds.In fact, the locker, which is believed to be containing gold, has been sealed off by the Income Tax department which had raided the Seashore Group last year in February.

However, the silver metal had remained untraced.The company, which has found itself at the wrong end of the law over the money circulation schemes running into several hundreds of crores of rupees, was into gold and silver trading big time. Even after it came under the Crime Branch raids last year, it was still continuing the trade.

Kumar said the EOW has already sought cancellation of its trading licence by applying to the Commercial Taxes and Sales Tax wings of the Government. There are more lockers which the enforcement agency is trying to locate. Even as the enforcement agency made a huge haul of Seashore’s wealth, Dash’s bail application was rejected by a Jeypore Court on Saturday and he has been sent to jail custody. Meanwhile, the Nabarangpur Police has sought his remand in connection with a case registered with the local police station.