BHUBANESWAR: Six days after raiding his house in the City, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday apprehended Durga Prasad Mishra, the Managing Director of Micro Finance Limited (MFL), which is accused of mobilising at least Rs 500 crore of public deposits.
Mishra has been on the run since March when the Economic Offences Wing went after his firm following a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report.
A CBI spokesperson said MFL has at least 10 sister concerns, including a television channel MBC TV. Although preliminary investigation revealed that MFL had made away with over `500 crore of public deposits, the investors say the figure could be almost its double since the firm had operations in many parts of India and had a depositor base of over five lakh.
When the chit fund scam surfaced last year, the EOW had gone after MFL and arrested 13 persons by registering as many cases. Its branches were shut down.
However, the firm resorted to fraudulent practices to keep its operations going, which came to the fore when RBI’s Regional Office conducted a routine check earlier this year. During the verification, it was found that the company had got a forged endorsement letter issued by Ajay Swain, a former private secretary to Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Panchayati Raj department. The letter, addressed to all Collectors, wanted support from the district administration for the firm’s operations.
MFL was registered as a non-deposit taking non-banking financial company (NBFC) but was collecting deposits from public using Swain’s unauthorised and forged letter.
Once the matter came to light, Swain was arrested along with a Director, Baikuntha Nath Patnaik. Later, another Director, Ashok Patnaik, was held. MFL has invested in housing, hospitality as well as media.
Meanwhile, the CBI on Sunday interrogated the proprietor of a City-based advertising agency for its alleged links with Seashore Group.
Sangeeta Lal, who runs the agency, was grilled for over seven hours in different phases. The advertising agency, which deals with event management, publishing and advertising, is alleged to have entered into transactions worth several crores of rupees with Seashore Group.
The probe agency wanted to check the accounts of the firm and asked for documents from Lal. She, however, did not respond to questions by the media.
On the day, the investigating agency also verified the financial background of Jagabandhu Panda, a former Director of Artha Tatwa Group, who is currently on CBI remand. Panda’s links with a DSP-ranked officer is also being verified by the probe agency.