The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the State Crime Branch (CB) on Friday arrested a director of a company for running a chit fund firm in the garb of a real estate establishment. The arrested director Braja Sundar Mishra of Kalarahanga under the Mancheswar police limits here to be forwarded to a designated court in Cuttack later in the day.
CB DIG Sanjay Kumar said Mishra had been collecting huge amounts from people in the name of two companies, land India Real Estate Private limited and land India Assets limited, after promising them high returns on their deposits. In the name of real estate business, Mishra and other company directors collected about Rs 8 crore from depositors in Bhubaneswar and Polasara and other places of Ganjam district between 2011 and 2013, the DIG said. The EOW has registered a case in this connection on January 5, 2015, he added.
Investigation so far has revealed that two companies run from its office at N3/430 in Nayapalli here and represented by its directors Mishra and others had floated various schemes such as double return scheme, monthly income scheme and recurring deposit scheme with assurance of high rate of interest and induced the public to make deposits through leaflets, colourful brochures, informed the DIG.
The accused paid interest to old depositors initially out of the deposits of new depositors but closed the office in July 2013 without paying the interest and the maturity amount, he added. “Investigation is in progress. Efforts are on to nab three to four more directors of the company involved in the crime,” the DIG said.
The arrested accused was booked under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 406, 120(B) of IPC and Sections 4, 5 and 6 of Prize Chit and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act 1978 and Section 6 of the Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors Act.