Taking fresh action a chit-fund scam in Odisha, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested the former proprietor of DNB Food Processing Private Limited, who misappropriated more than Rs 17 crore of gullible depositors and was on the run, officials said on Sunday.
The accused Debabrata Dutta was held from West Bengal’s Siliguri on August 28 and will be produced before a court in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, they added.
The CBI noted that Dutta had consistently failed to cooperate with investigators during earlier proceedings.
Dutta was declared an absconder in the chargesheet submitted on December 26, 2022, which charged him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, the central agency added.
A Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) was subsequently issued against him on August 5, 2024.
Acting on intelligence inputs, the CBI traced Dutta and finally arrested in Siliguri on Friday.
The agency said he is being brought to Odisha on transit remand to be produced before the competent court in Bhubaneswar.
In a separate enforcement action, the CBI arrested a Proclaimed Offender on August 21 who had been evading law enforcement for nearly 23 years in a case involving the criminal misappropriation of cargo valued at Rs 9 lakh.
According to a CBI statement, the suspect, identified as Roop Singh, was arrested following sustained intelligence tracking by the agency.
His arrest follows the capture of co-accused Arjun Singh on November 7, 2025, who had similarly been absconding for almost 22 years.
The case traces back to an October 4, 1998 FIR filed at Amalner Police Station in Maharashtra regarding the theft and and misappropriation of goods, including ghee and mung, loaded in two trucks.
Initial allegations stated that on September 27, 1998, two truck drivers, Babu Khan and Aslam Khan, stole and misappropriated the goods.
The Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench) issued an order on February 25, 2002, in criminal writ petition dated November 27, 2000, transferring the investigation from local police directly to the CBI.
Following the judicial mandate, the CBI re-registered the case on April 5, 2002, as a 1998 theft and criminal misappropriation case involving goods loaded in two trucks that was transferred to the central agency in 2002, targeting Babu Khan, Aslam Khan, and their accomplices.
“After the investigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet on December 19, 2003, before the Court of the JMFC at Amalner against Roop Singh, Arjun Singh, Babu Khan and Aslam Khan for offences relating to criminal misappropriation, conspiracy and abetment,” the central agency said.
