EOW officials nab editor of Thane paper

Thane, Dec 24 (UNI) The officials of Economic Offences Wing of city police today arrested the editor of a local Marathi daily 'Janadesh' in connection with a multi-crore fraud involving an investement firm.

Police have identified the arrested accused as Kailas Mahapadi.

Mahapadi had allegedly cheated thousands of people from various parts of Maharashtra including Thane, Pune and Ahmednagar under the pretext of investing their money in transport business for the BPOs, police said, adding, they were looking for him for long.

The main accused in the multi-crore investment fraud Prem Kamble and four others have been arested earlier by the Police.

Unique Finance had cheated around 3,000 investors to the tune of Rs 55 crore. The directors of the firm had kept the money at different places.

According to a complaint filed by one Kamble in 2006, Mahapadi had demanded and accepted Rs 2 crore in installments from him for allegedly not printing a news story about the money that he had kept at different places.

As the news of such an extortion spread in the city, he had fled and was in hiding. He had also applied for an anticipatory bail in the district court apprehending arrest.

Today, after the district court rejected his anticipatory bail application, he was arrested by the officials, police added.

UNI