Balurghat, March 14: A chit fund operator was thrashed by local residents of Harirampur and arrested here yesterday after a man filed an FIR stating that he had been cheated by the accused.

Sources said Chittaranjan Debnath, 46, a resident of Keshrail village under Harirampur had made a fixed deposit of Rs 15,000 a year ago at Platinum Realcon Industries.

The amount matured on January 31 after which Debnath started searching for Taslim Sheikh, 40. Sheikh had introduced himself as the managing director of the company. On March 9, Debnath got to know that Sheikh would come to be coming to Tapan block.

He went to Tapan with some of his friends to take his money from Sheikh who denied having taken the amount. Debnath and others then made a plan. They lured Sheikh with more business at Harirampur, around 70km from here. Sheikh grabbed the opportunity and arrived in Harirampur yesterday. Debnath had gathered around ten persons to catch Sheikh. Immediately after Sheikh arrived he was caught by Debnath and the others. They detained him in a house and allegedly beat him up. Later, the police arrested the accused on the basis of an FIR filed by Debnath.

“I had made a fixed deposit in Sheikh’s company. When I went to the local branch of the company I found it locked,” said Debnath, a farmer. Sources said there are at least 19 such chit funds operators in Harirampur which are collecting funds by luring locals with higher interest rates.

“Taslim was arrested yesterday evening. The accused had made a fixed deposit of Debnath at his company with an interest of over 15 per cent annually,” said Debashis Bose, the inspector-in-charge of Harirampur.