Cuttack, July 6: Police today arrested a youth for duping a man of Rs 3 lakh after promising him land near Phulnakhara.

The accused, Sumit Thakur, 30, took the money from Laxminath Mohapatra a few months ago. When he failed to give him land, Mohapatra lodged a case against Thakur yesterday.

Investigation has also brought to the fore a few more shocking facts.

In order to extract money from investors, the accused had distributed fake invitation cards to a grand party at May Fair Hotel in Bhubaneswar scheduled on July 5. He cooked up the story of the event to persuade people to invest money.

The card featured the names of chief minister Naveen Patnaik and top Bollywood actors, including Salman Khan, as people who would attend the party. Naveen was referred to as the chief guest at the event.

Thakur, a native of Bihar, had set up a real estate company called Aniskha Builders and stayed at CDA Sector-10 under Phase II police station.

"After Mohapatra lodged the complaint, we started our investigation. After getting confirmation from the chief minister's office and the star hotel in Bhubaneswar that no such programme had been scheduled, we arrested the accused today," said inspector-in charge of CDA Phase II police station Dilip Kumar Swain.

The motive of the youth was to escape with the money of the investors, Swain said.

Senior officials said Thakur was trying to cheat investors by promising to construct residential apartments, colonies at Phulnakhara on the outskirts of Cuttack, Patia and Rasulgarh in Bhubaneswar.

The cops have also recovered some printing cards, gate and entry passes from Thakur, who has been arrested under Indian Penal Code Section 468 (forgery) and 420 (cheating).

The police have kept the investigation in connection with incident open as so far, no other person has lodged any case against him.