Ponzi scheme busted in R’sthan, 4 arrested

JAIPUR: The special operations group (SOG) of the Rajasthan police on Friday busted an interstate Ponzi scheme running into crores of rupees and arrested four people, including the alleged mastermind.

According to senior SOG officials, six companies constituted by the Kolkata-based Pincon Group, which opened offices in various cities in Rajasthan including, Ajmer, Chomu, Kota and Bharatpur, began inviting investments from the public in 2010. “The Pincon Group had invited capital from the public to issue debentures as per private placement, which was never paid back. The racket so far collected ₹56 crore in Rajasthan,” said Sanjay Shrotriya, superintendent of police, SOG.

He added that once the debentures matured, the fraudsters would convince the investor to invest the matured amount in another company owned by them, promising higher returns, thus keeping the money looping with the group.

“As a result, the money would never be paid back to the investors completely. Moreover, one such company named Greenage Food Product Ltd continued to receive investments from the public even after being liquidated on the orders of Calcutta high court,” Shrotriya said. About ₹39 crore had been siphoned off, he said. CMD Manoranjan Roy and director Vinay Singh were arrested from Bengaluru. Accounts head of the company Raghu Shetty, his assistant, and director Hari Singh were arrested from Varanasi and Agra respectively, SOG ADG Umesh Mishra said.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that the magnitude of the scam goes well into more than ₹1,000 crore, and may be even higher than the infamous Saradha scam,” Shrotriya said.