Bhubaneswar: The economic offences wing of the state crime branch on Monday arrested a 50-year-old woman for allegedly duping Rs 3 crore from investors on the pretext of providing houses.

The woman, Nirupama Sudaray, is the director of real-estate firm Arundhati Ifratech Pvt. Ltd. EoW sleuths arrested her in the morning and forwarded her to the designated court in Cuttack.

Police said the firm had its head office at Jatani on the city outskirts and advertised for booking residential houses under the tehsil in 2010.

"Around 250 prospective buyers entered into an agreement for the project named "Arundhati Vihar". The firm later executed a sale deed on receipt of land cost and part payment for construction of houses," said an EoW official.

The firm allegedly collected Rs 3 crore from the buyers and promised to complete the project within 18 to 24 months.

The buyers had previously tried to get their money back, but in vein. In May, a few buyers lodged a complaint with the EoW. "I invested Rs 10 lakh as advance in 2010 to get a house. When the project continued to be delayed, I asked for repayment of the advance, but they refused," alleged a buyer,

The investigating agency had earlier arrested Nirupama's husband, Ashok, the firm's managing director on May 18.

"Investigation revealed that the firm had executed a number of fake sale deeds using forged documents without any record of rights of the plots. We are trying to trace the movable and immovable assets of the couple," said another EoW official.