Pradeep Sethi

Bhubaneswar, May 22: A local court today extended the police remand of Pradeep Sethi, the chairman-cum-managing director of Artha Tatwa group, a deposit collection company, for four more days.

The police will produce Sethi, who the cops said had purchased a large number of plots with investors’ money, in court on May 26.

Sethi was arrested on May 12 for allegedly cheating investors of several hundred crores and sent to 14 days’ judicial custody. The city police later took him on four days’ remand on May 18.

“We appealed the court to take Sethi on five days’ remand to get more information out of him. The court granted four days’ remand,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nitinjeet Singh.

During interrogation over the past four days, the police said they had come across documents showing Sethi had purchased 207 acres of land using public money that he had drawn from the market. These lands are scattered all over the state and also outside it. The cost of these plots of land would be more than Rs 100 crore. Besides, there are several flats and under-construction buildings in his name at prime locations of the city.

“We are verifying the documents related to these plots. After that is done, we will appeal before the court for further transaction on these properties,” said Singh.

The police have also stumbled upon at least 25 cars, including some luxury ones, in the name of Sethi and his company. The cars have not been seized yet. A police official said Sethi had, last month, sold several SUVs.

Sources said the sham deposit collection company had eight branches, three of which drew money from the public and invested that in other branches. His modus operandi was the same as all other deposit collection companies. They were cheating people by promising three per cent interest per month against their investment. The total cost of Sethi’s property is around Rs 300 crore.

A police officer said Sethi had divulged the names of several political leaders and other influential people, who had taken money from him as loan advances. “We are verifying his statements and trying to collect evidences against these people,” said the officer.

The DCP said they were trying to arrest at least 50 other people, most of whom were director-level employees of the company.

Real estate arrests

Badambadi police today arrested two officials of a real estate firm in Cuttack for allegedly cheating their customers after promising them to provide land.

Managing director of the company Pravat Nanda and another employee, Geetanjali Acharya, were arrested for duping two persons. Complainant Manjulata Sahoo of Madhupatna said she had paid Rs 1.2 lakh for a 4,800 sqft plot at Banapur under Cuttack Sadar in 2003. But the company had not given her possession of the land.

The police arrested Nanda following her complaint.

However, the company officials said the allegations were baseless. “The agreement was cancelled because the customer did not pay the full amount of Rs 1.62 lakh despite our notices,” said a senior official of the company.

Police said Acharya’s arrest came following a complaint by another customer from Athgarh, who had paid her Rs 45,000 for a plot, which he did not get.

“We are investigating both the cases,” said inspector in charge of Badambadi police station Ranjit Prusty.

More complaints

Two groups of people today lodged complaints with the economic offence wing of the crime branch against two deposit collection companies. A group of investors from Nayagarh alleged that Nabadeep Services Private Limited had taken Rs 5 crore from over 3,000 people of that area promising them good interest. But when the time came for payments, the company shut shop.

Another group of people from Cuttack lodged a complaint against a company for allegedly cheating them several lakh rupees.