POST NEWS NETWORK
Angul, Nov 8: Police Monday raided the office of a chit fund firm, of Lakshmi Cooperative Society Ltd, at Panchayat Industry Square here and arrested its branch manager and secretary on the charge of defrauding gullible investors in the district of over Rs 1 crore.
The accused were branch manager Basant Sahu (35) of Gokulpur under Raghunathpur police limits in Jagatsinghpur district and secretary Lokanath Behera of Kantabania under Gurudijhatia police limits in Cuttack district, said sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Rabi Narayan Deo at a press meet on Angul police station premises Monday.
President of the firm Sunil Pradhan, vice-president Prasant Nayak and legal advisor Niranjan Singh, who have been named in the FIR, will soon be arrested, Deo said.
Cash Rs 43,288, stamps, cashbooks and deposit certificates were seized from the office premises.
The police action came after hundreds of depositors lodged complaints against the firm Saturday. Police started an investigation into the complaints and found the charges true.
Deo said the tainted firm registered itself under the Cooperative Society Act October 4, 2008 and started its operation. During registration, the company was permitted only to carry out its operations in Cuttack, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts. However, violating the norms, the company opened a branch at Jagannath Market Complex here in 2009.
Later, it started collecting money from the residents under its daily deposit scheme, savings deposit, recurring deposit, fixed deposit and other schemes before shifting its office to Panchayat Industry Square.
Initially, the firm appointed 12 agents and targeted gullible tribals living in Nalco Munda hutting and other people in the vicinity by floating attractive schemes. It soon collected over Rs 13 lakh from 40 people and promised to return 16 times the amount under its children development scheme.
However, things came out in the open after the company stopped paying returns to the depositors. The matter came to fore after a shopkeeper of Nalco, Harmohan Sahu, who had deposited lakhs of rupees in the daily savings scheme and fixed deposits, failed to get back his money.
He even visited the firm’s head office at Chowdwar to get back his money, but in vain. Later he along with hundreds of depositors lodged complaints with local police Saturday. PNN
