BHUBANESWAR: Two directors of a ponzi firm were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch for duping investors to the tune of over Rs 3 crore. The accused, Sanjit Bhowmik of Birbhum district in West Bengal and Mithun Chatterjee of West Midnapore, were arrested on Saturday and Sunday respectively from Bolpur. Sanjit and Mithun are the directors of Sagarika Realtors Projects India Limited, Sagarika Mutual Benefit Fund Limited and Sagarika Network Marketing Private Limited. While the head office of the firm was opened at Birbhum district, the company had its branch office in Cuttack.
The chit fund firm collected over Rs 3 crore from the people of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Dhenkanal and other parts of the State from 2009 to 2013 on the pretext of providing higher returns on their deposited amounts. However, officials of the firm later closed Cuttack branch office and did not refund the money of the gullible investors. The EOW sleuths had earlier arrested another director, Sibu Das, and Odishaofficials said. head of the firm, Satyen Manik on March 6, 2017 from Midnapore in connection with the same case.
A case in this regard was registered under Sections 467, 468, 471, 420, 406 and 120B of IPC and Sections 4, 5 and 6 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and Section 6 of Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011.
“Sanjit and Mithun were nabbed from Bolpur in West Bengal. They were produced in a local court there and later brought on transit remand. The duo was produced in OPID court, Cuttack,” EOW officials said.