BHUBANESWAR: More than six weeks after arresting the managing director of Micro Finance Limited, Durga Prasad Mishra, the CBI on Saturday cracked down on the non-banking financial company which is under the scanner for collecting over Rs 500 crore of public deposits.
The probe agency raided 14 places in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur during which the residential premises of Mishra, two directors of MFL - a former bureaucrat and an employee of Panchayati Raj Department - came under search by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Mishra’s Aryabhumi Complex flat in Patia here and the company’s offices in Berhampur were searched by the CBI teams. The house of a retired bureaucrat JK Satpathy, who also was a promoter of the company, was also raided in Cuttack.
Similarly, two directors of MFL Suratha Das and Ashok Patnaik came under search. While Das stays in Bhubaneswar, Patnaik is a resident of Cuttack. The Unit IX residential quarter of Ajay Swain, the former personal assistant to Commissioner-cum-Secretary in Panchayati Raj Department, was also raided by CBI.
On December 14, the CBI had arrested Mishra who was untraceable since March following raids by the Economic Offences Wing.
Once a licensed NBFC, Micro Finance Limited ran into trouble after the Reserve Bank of India downgraded its status to a non-deposit taking firm. However, once it was found to be collecting deposits from the public, 13 cases were lodged against the company in 2013 and its branches were shut down by the EOW.
CBI sources said, Micro Finance Limited had invested in housing and hotel business in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. It had at least 10 sister concerns, including a television channel MBC TV.
Before Mishra was arrested by CBI, the EOW had held directors Baikuntha Nath Patnaik, Ashok Patnaik and Swain.