Chit fund: 15 people arrested in Odisha

BALASORE (ODISHA): Fifteen people including the chief managing director of a chit fund company were arrested on Tuesday in Balasore district for duping investors through illegal money circulation, police said.

Among those arrested include CMD of Mid-East Group of Companies, Debesh Kumar Nayak, Vice-President Ratikant Tripathy and three founder members of the firm, Inspector In-Charge of Balasore town police station, Umesh Gadnaik said.

All the accused were produced before the sub-divisional judicial magistrate who sent them to jail for two weeks. They were detained and interrogated since yesterday after a cheque bounce complaint was lodged against them by a depositor.

One Radhakanta Das had lodged a complaint that after maturity of his deposit amount he was given a cheque of Rs 2.26 lakh which bounced, police said. Meanwhile, the bail application of Prashant Das, CMD of Seashore Group, another chit fund company, was rejected by a court in Koraput.

Das was arrested from Mumbai a few days ago on charges of duping investors to the tune of Rs 50 crore in Semiliguda of Koraput district.