Cuttack: Police on Sunday arrested chief of chit fund firm Bandhan Financial Services Pvt Ltd Debi Prasad Maharana, who had been on the run.
A resident of Chhatia, he was nabbed from Cuttack by a team of Balangir police on charges of duping hundreds of women of Balangir town to the tune of Rs 1 crore on the pretext of providing them loan at low interest rate.
On June 5, two of the company officials, Dilip Baral from Cuttack and Ajay Parida of Jajpur, were arrested in connection with the fraud. Some cash, mobile phones and vehicles were seized from their possession.
According to reports, the Ponzi firm had formed 70 self-help groups and collected around Rs 1 lakh from each group. It had also floated different lucrative schemes and convinced women to provide them loan at low interest rate.