Odisha EOW arrests Kolkata-based chit fund firm’s director in Rs 15 cr scam

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested Tapan Samanta, Director of a chit fund company which is accused of defrauding people to the tune of Rs 15 crore on the pretext of high returns on their investment.

The EOW arrested him from Naskar Road in Narendrapur of Kolkata on March 6 in connection with a case registered in August, 2019  under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of IPC r.w. Section 6 of OPID Act, 2011. He was later produced before Baruipur Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kolkata yesterday. On the strength of transit remand approved by the court, the accused will be produced before court in Odisha’s Balasore today.

Earlier in July last year, CMD of the chit fund company Mass Infra Realty Ltd Pratap Kumar Biswal was arrested in this connection and is currently in judicial custody.

As per the complaint lodged by one Sukadev Hota of Soro, the company’s CMD and its six directors, including Tapan Samanta had duped the complainant and many other depositors to the tune of several crores on the pretext of returning high rate of interest on their deposits under different schemes floated by the company.

During investigation, it was revealed that Mass Infra Realty Ltd, was registered with ROC, Kolkata in September, 2010 under the Companies Act, 1956 having its registered office in Barasat police station area. In  2012, the company changed its name to Human Welfare Credit & Thrift Co-operative Society Ltd. registered under Multistate Cooperative Societies Act, 2012 having its registered office in Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi. The company managed to lure people with false promise of high returns on their deposits and later collected as many as Rs 15 crore from several investors before absconding.