Paradip: The ponzi scam committed by Artha Tatwa (AT) group took a curious turn after Abhayachandpur police here in Jagatsinghpur district arrested another accused in the fraud, Tuesday.
He was identified as Pabitra Das of Rangiagad village under Paradip police limits. He was arrested when he was on his way to Cuttack from Bhubaneswar, Abhayachandpur IIC Jugal Kishore Das said.
He was absconding since June 10, 2014 after the scam broke out. A case was registered in this connection and the accused produced in court.
The arrest has once again brought the spotlight on the infamous scam as Abhayachandpur police plans to bring AT group chief Pradeep Sethy on remand for a joint questioning of him and the co-accused, Paradip ASP Bishnu Charan Mishra said. Police are also planning to probe bank dealings and other issues of Pabitra in the ponzi fraud.
Pabitra claimed to have invested all the money he collected from depositors in AT group and Magma Finance in exchange of agent commissions. Sethy is currently lodged in jail after being awarded a seven-year jail term by a special CBI court in 2017.
Land acquisitions were made for establishment of a plastic park in Paradip in 2014. Acquisitions were made by IDCO during which many people in Rangiagad village lost their homestead land and farmland in lieu of monetary compensation.
Pabitra targeted the land losers and lured them into investing their money in various deposit schemes of AT group and Magma Finance by promising doubling of their money in three years. Lured by the promise, at least 11 persons handed over Rs 35 lakh to Pabitra to invest in the deposit schemes.
The depositors were identified as Rabi Behera, Chhabi Behera, Nira Behera, Abhaya Behera, Sahadev Barik, Tarun Mallick, Akshaya Mallick, Nimain Mandal, Nakul Das, Anam Sethy and Gopan Mallick of Rangiagad village. One of the depositors, Rabi, after failing to get his money back, lodged a complaint at the police station against Pabitra, his mother Salia Das and elder brother Dillip Das.
Police registered a case and started an investigation. Pabitra’s elder brother Dillip being a lawyer managed to get anticipatory bail for him and his mother from Orissa High Court while Pabitra went absconding.