Man arrested for cheating more than 500 of ₹3.50 cr

The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested a 46-year-old man from Bihar’s Sitamarhi for allegedly duping more than 500 people to the tune of over ₹3.50 crore by floating bogus banking schemes that promised high returns.

Additional commissioner of police (EOW) RK Singh said the arrested man, Murari Kumar Shrivastav, along with three of his associates, allegedly formed a fake financial investment company called Progress Producer Company Ltd in 2016, which they claimed was authorised by the RBI to operate like a bank and assured high returns.

The police said they are on the lookout for the other suspects.

The suspects first came up with an office in northeast Delhi’s Gokalpuri and later shifted base to Paharganj. They mostly targeted investors from

Delhi-ncr, said police.

“The fraudsters floated two investment schemes — fixed deposit and renewal deposit — which promised investors 10-18% returns on the maturity of their monthly investments, depending on the invested amount. The minimum investment amount was ₹5,000,” said Singh.

The additional CP said the fraudsters collected monthly deposits, mostly in cash, and gave passbooks to the investors just like any other bank. In the passbook, they used to maintain the records of the amount invested. “The fraudsters paid good returns to some investors in the initial stage to win their confidence and attract more investors,” said Singh, adding that the suspects collected over ₹3.50 crore from 531 investors in two years.

However, when the investments were due to mature in 2018 and investors started asking for money, the suspects shut down their offices, sold the property, deactivated their contact numbers and fled. A total of 38 investors filed a case in 2018 with the EOW. The suspects were on the run since a case was registered against them, said police.

“During investigation, it was found that the company was not registered with the RBI, neither was it authorised to collect money from investors. We traced Shrivastav to Sitamarhi and arrested him last week. Efforts are on to nab other suspects,” said Singh.

THE SUSPECT AND 3 OF HIS ASSOCIATES PROMISED HIGH RETURNS FOR INVESTMENTS IN THEIR FIRM WHICH THEY SAID WAS APPROVED BY RBI