5000 women duped, two held

BETTIAH: Two persons have been arrested in a case where over 5,000 women investors were allegedly duped of a total of ₹100 crore in five districts of Bihar over the past three years, police said on Monday.

Presenting the arrested accused, identified as Nirbhay Yadav and Pankaj Kumar, before media persons, East Champaran’s superintendent of police Navin Chand Jha said the duo had cheated over 5,000 women in five districts of East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sheohar.

“They would induce women with a promise of unrealistically high returns on their investments as well as a fixed monthly income of ₹ 2,500 and tricked them into taking loans from the finance companies,” Jha said, adding the scheme was being run for past three years.

Police said Nirbhay Yadav and his associates used to run Mother Future Charitable Trust and Mother Future Finance Company, which had offices in the five districts. They would form a group of 20 women and helped each of them in getting the loan of ₹ 22,500 from a micro finance company.

“The two then deposited the loan amount in the account of their own companies, promising to give each woman ₹2,500 per month for two years, which they even paid some of them before they shut their offices and fled,” said a police officer.

According to police, the scam came to light when a case was lodged in Madhuban on July 14, 2021, against four persons on the basis of the statement of one Kaushila Devi, a resident of Khairwa village under Madhuban police station.

Jha said the scam could get bigger and that the police were probing if the finance companies followed rules in sanctioning loans to the women.