Two persons were sentenced to imprisonment for five years by a court in Odisha for duping them through their chit fund company.
Chief Judicial Magistrate of Khurda P M Samal pronounced the jail term for Prabhat Nanda and Rabeya Begum of East Coast Mutual Trust for Trade and Commerce and fined them Rs 50,000.
In the event of non-payment of penalty, the duo would have to undergo additional jail term for six months, he ordered.
The two had been arrested here in 2013 following a complaint lodged with the police by one of the depositors that the money circulation company had defrauded him of Rs 1.5 lakh.
It was alleged that the company had cheated many depositors, mostly in Khurda district, of around Rs 10 crore by promising them lucrative returns.
Two officials of the company are still at large.
