Bhubaneswar, Mar 31 (IANS): The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha police on Thursday arrested Nikhilananda Pashupalak, regional director of a chit fund company in a cheating case of Rs 500 crore.

Pasupalak, who was absconding since January 2012, was arrested from Berhampur, police said.

The arrest was made on the basis of an FIR registered following a written complaint filed by Parsuram Behera against the office bearers of Success Online Service System (SOSS) Private Ltd., a chit fund company operated through its regional office at Berhampur, they said.

Speaking to media persons, EOW SP Dilip Tripathy said the company was collecting illegal deposits by floating different schemes under the promise of giving health care commodities, food products and tour packages.

Besides, the company was also collecting money under three different schemes with monthly payment of Rs 6,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 promising 5 to 10 per cent interest, he said.

The company has collected more than Rs 500 crore such illegal deposits from Delhi, Jharkhand, Odisha and other places. Two other persons -- Raman Kumar Singh and Rakesh Kumar -- were the managing director and secretary of the company, SOSS, the officials said.

The EOW has found that a substantial amount of the collected public deposits have been mobilised by the accused persons for making Bhojpuri films under Cine Vision, a sister concern of SOSS and the accused Nikhilananda had also acted in the films (Bhojpuri).