Bhubaneswar, June 7: Balasore police today raided the house of a partner of an infrastructure company that has allegedly duped around 40 customers of Rs 10 crore on the pretext of providing them houses.

The cops raided the house of Indira Dash, wife of a former deputy drugs controller, at VSS Nagar in Bhubaneswar, and later sealed it. They said that while Dash has been absconding, the managing director of the company, Chandrakanta Ray Samant Singhar was arrested two months ago.

Deputy superintendent of police (crime), Balasore, Amaresh Panda said that the house was being used as the registered office of the firm.

"Though Samant Singhar had collected money by promising houses to people, Dash was a partner in the firm. We are trying to nab her," said Panda.

Sahadevkhunta police had lodged a case on April 6 on the basis of a complaint filed by Priyadarshi Das. He had accused Samant Singhar of taking Rs 94 lakh in lieu of providing him two flats. However, Samant Sighar neither gave him the flats nor returned his money. Later, 14 other customers also brought similar allegations against Samant Singhar.

"We suspect Samant Singhar of duping people also in Bhubaneswar where he had a few housing projects," said a police official.

In a related development, the crime branch today proposed to the state finance department to confiscate the property of Shreebhumi Multistate Cooperative Society, which has allegedly cheated investors across the state of Rs 50 crore. The properties include 46 acres in Khurda and bank deposits worth Rs 3.5 lakh. The crime branch in May last year had arrested the firm's director Subhanshu Singh.

The cops, during investigation, had found that the firm had opened its office at Jayadev Vihar in 2011 as a construction company, but later forayed into other businesses, including mining and hotel.