Angul, Feb.17: An employee of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and his wife were arrested for opening two deposit collection companies and duping hundreds of people.

The couple was sent to jail after a local court rejected their bail plea.

'Our inquiry revealed that Dinabandhu Mishra and his wife swindled not less than Rs 24 crore from the local people. Neither did he refund their money, nor provide any plot and others as promised,' said inspector in-charge of Nalco police station Sukumar Tripathi.

According to police, Dinabandhu, a resident of Kendrapara district who has been working in the Nalco power plant as a technician, had opened two deposit collection companies in the name of his wife Bijay Manjari Satpathy. These companies are Bijaylaxmi Information Technology and Bijaylaxmi Marketing Private Limited.

Shortly after the two firms started working, people, especially employees of Nalco, were lured to invest in them. They were promised either a plot in Cuttack or Bhubaneswar or double return against the money invested. Investors were also told that they would get monthly pension, the police said.

According to crime branch sources, people reposed faith in Dinabandhu as he was a Nalco employee and there was a huge collection to the tune of Rs 24 crore within two to three years. However, when nobody got any return in terms of promised cash or plots, they smelled something foul.

One of the depositors Sourav Dash finally lodged a complaint against the duo at Nalco police station in October last.

'Dinabandhu took Rs 3 lakh from me in 2010 and promised to double it within 18 months. He did not return the money as he had been cheating me since then. His office in the local village has been closed and when we contacted him he said his companies had become bankrupt and asked for more time to pay back the money,' said Dash in his complaint lodged with the police.