Finance Co Cons Depositors, Culprit Arrested

PHULBANI: A person has been arrested by Crime Branch for cheating people of crores of rupees in Kandhamal district through an illegal finance company. Raikia police station IIC Biranchi Narayan Bagha said the accused Ramesh Pradhan was arrested on Saturday from Bhubaneswar. He was chairman of Gramya Unnayana Sahayak Gosthi, a private finance agency at Dodingia near Raikia, which had duped around 30,000 depositors in the area.“In the last three years, he had duped the depositors of ` 5 crore by promising them huge profit on the amount deposited,” Bagha said. A complaint was filed against him by Kesamati Pradhan, convenor of Koidina Forum for Peace and Justice, a local social organisation. The district police had referred the case to Crime Branch.In a similar incident six months back, one Bachhan Paricha, chief of ITCOL, another finance company, was nabbed from Phulbani. The company had duped people of ` 8 crore by promising them high returns.