Tribeni Mohanty lands in soup

BHUBANESWAR: Film producer Tribeni Mohanty landed in trouble once again on Thursday, when police grilled him for his involvement in a case relating to duping unwary investors with promises of double returns. He had allegedly cheated people of lakhs of rupees.
Mohanty, who recently made “Tu Tha Mu Jauchhi Rusi”, was arrested in December last year on charges of cheating.His arrest followed complaints lodged by a large number of people who claimed that he reneged on his promise to give hefty returns to investors.
After getting bail in January, he promised the investors their money would be returned by March. But he turned his back on them once again, much to the chagrin of the gullible investors.
The incensed people gheraoed the Saheed Nagar police station on Thursday and demanded Tribeni Mohanty’s immediate arrest. Police were interrogating Mohanty till late in the evening. “We are still questioning him. We would arrest him after we receive at least another fresh complaint from the investors,” a police officer said.
According to the police, Mohanty owns a consultancy firm in the Saheed Nagar area. He was also into real estate, share market and chit fund business. Taking a leaf out of Bollywood actor Naseer Khan, who was arrested in a chit fund scam, Mohanty perhaps invested people’s money in his films, the police officer added. “I had invested Rs 2 lakh in Mohanty’s firm in December 2010. He had promised me good returns. But he backtracked and left me with nothing,” Ashutosh Tripathy, an investor said.
“Every time we go to his office to claim our money, he plays hide and seek with us. Police should deal with him strict hands. I was promised a plot near Puri. But I got nothing,” B K Dalei, another investor said.
Meanwhile, Tribeni Mohanty was not available for comments.
About Rs 191 crore deposited and operated through SBI, ICICI, HDFC, Axis and other banks in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata through the chit fund scam had been put under freeze. A major share of that money, to the tune of Rs 101 crore, was with FineIndisale, a firm owned by belonging to the actor-producer Naseer Khan.