Balasore, June 6: Five persons, including the regional branch head of a fake financial company, were arrested from a lodge in a raid conducted by the Balasore police.

They were taken into custody while the regional head was holding interviews of prospective employees for the firm.

“We had received complaints that the company was collecting money by duping depositors. Initial probe revealed that the financial company might have raised anything between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 40 lakh from Balasore district only,” said Manas Deo, inspector in-charge of Sahadevkhunta police station.

“There were complaints that employees of the company had collected deposits from local people. Some of the depositors, who had deposited cheques issued by the firm, got the cheques bounced. When the depositors confronted the staff, they were threatened with dire consequences. Cases under sections 417, 420, 294, 506, 384 and 34 of the IPC have been registered,” Deo said.

Kishor Mohanty of Odongi, supposed to be branch head of the firm, is the kingpin of the racket. Apart from him, the other arrested persons are Sujit Mohapatra, Rabiranjan Biswal, Priyabrata Behera and Jyotsna Jena.

The company, which had been operating under the name of Laxmi Cooperative Marketing Society, used to collect money from depositors under different schemes with the promise to advance them loans after initial deposits. The firm had even issued post-dated cheques.

It is said that one Gunanidhi Behera of Nuapada heads the company. The collected amount used to be deposited in the name of Pujarani Panda.