OST Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 14:

The jailed CMD of chit fund company Artha Tatwa Group Pradeep Sethi,was sent to a 15-day police remand on Tuesday following an order by the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in response to several appeals made by the Sambalpur district police earlier in 2013.

Pradip Sethy Pradip Sethi

Sethi was taken on remand by the Sambalpur police in connection with the alleged chit-fund fraud in the state.

Sethi was lodged in the Jharpada jail since his arrest by the Bhubaneswar commissionerate police on May 2013 based on an FIR lodged in the local Kharvela Nagar police station for duping an MCL official Raghumani Das of around Rs 6 lakh. He allegedly collected the money from Shri Das by promising attractive returns through various ponzi schemes.

The Commissionerate Police found Sethi involved in a financial fraud amounting to at least Rs 200 crore, collected from gullible investors across the state.

“There are 11 criminal cases against Sethi in different police stations including three in Bhubaneswar. AT group has allegedly collected deposits of at least Rs 1.5 crore from the capital city alone. A number of cases were registered against him earlier in a number of districts including Balasore, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Khurda and Mayurbhanj.

While all other cases relating to the chit-fund scam are being investigated by Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch (CB), Commissionerate Police is probing the AT group’s case.