Bhubaneswar, June 20: The managing director of AB Realtech Services Limited, a money-deposit collection company, B. Keshabananda Patra, was today sent to jail.

The economic offences wing (EOW) of the crime branch had arrested him from Vishakhapatnam yesterday.

He has been accused of cheating investors of Rs 5 crore by promising them high interest rate returns.

Patra, 40, hails from Badabazar in Berhampur. His company, with its headquarters in Bhubaneswar, had collected money from a large number of people across the state. However, the owners closed down the company without paying the depositors.

According to police, Kishore Kumar Nayak lodged a complaint with the EOW on January 29, 2014, following which a case was registered against the officials of the firm. Patra had been absconding since then.

"Our team arrested the managing director of Realtech Services from Visakhapatnam yesterday. Patra was hiding in a hotel under a fake name. He booked the room in the name of Vivek Rout. We seized the forged documents in the name of Vivek Rout and other documents," said Rajendra Patnaik, the superintendent of police at EOW.

Patra was booked under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (forging documents), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978 and section 6 of the Orissa Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Act- 2011.

"We are investigating the involvement of other persons and are searching for more officials affiliated to the now defunct company," said an EOW official.