Bhubaneswar, Feb 10: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch today arrested a builder for allegedly duping Rs 4 crore to 13 customers on pretext of providing houses.

Police said that the accused identified as Maheswar Sahu, the managing director of M/s MX Infra Ltd had collected the money in the pretext of proving them duplex in the MX Infra New Citizen Housing project located at Mouza Uttermundamuhana, under Jatni police limits.

Police said that as many as 13 intending buyers had booked houses in the said project and cost of each duplex was Rs 55 lakhs.

“The accused executed agreements with the intending buyers for handing over them the houses in 2017. However, even after collecting more than Rs 4 crores from those intending buyers in installments, he did not make any progress in construction and completion of the project,” said an official.