A man and a woman have been arrested for allegedly duping at least five men from Bengal of over Rs 3 crore. The two allegedly introduced themselves as senior officials of a Delhi-based non-banking financial company and made false promises of arranging a loan of Rs 50 crore for them.

Police said the two accused who were put up in star hotels in the city, with the five men paying for their lodging, were picked up from a south Calcutta hotel early on Friday.

“The complainant and his friends are from Burdwan. They had been promised Rs 50 crore as a loan from a financial institute at a lucrative rate of interest. They were asked to part with more than Rs 3 crore in instalments as processing fee for granting the loan,” said an officer in Lalbazar.

The accused were identified as Ramnivas Shukla and Shirley John. The two were produced in a city court and have been remanded in police custody. Cops have started a case of cheating and forgery.

An officer said initially, the complainant and his friends did not realise the fraud and kept paying money as the loan’s processing fee. The men also kept arranging star hotel accommodations in the city for the fraudsters and paid their hotel bills, the police said.

Only recently, when the two asked the men for more money, the five realised they were being cheated.

Last week, Calcutta police arrested the branch manager of a private bank for allegedly running a non-banking financial company with her husband, allegedly making false promises of high returns if people deposited their money with them. An elderly couple, who had invested over Rs 1 crore with them, had lodged a complaint, based on which the woman was arrested.