Ex-director of firm produced in court after arrest by ED

LUCKNOW: Manoj Tyagi, former director of a broadcast company, was produced in the Special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundring Act) court in Lucknow on Monday, a day after his arrest from Hapur by team of the Enforcement Directorate (Lucknow zone) in connection with the Bike Bot ponzi scheme.

“ED arrested Manoj Tyagi, a close associate of one of the main accused Vijender Singh Hooda, for facilitating the financial transactions running into several hundred crores of rupees and concealing material facts related to the case and misleading the agency,” said a press statement issued by ED (Lucknow zone).

More than a dozen people who held important posts in the firm that launched the scheme have been arrested since last year. The arrest of Tyagi came following searches related to the Bike Bot scam at four locations in Delhi-NCR and other parts of the country.

The searches were carried out against Saha Infratech Pvt Ltd, its promoter Anil Saha and F7 Broadcast Pvt Ltd and its former director Manoj Tyagi, said the press statement.

Several incriminating documents, electronic devices and Rs 9.5 lakh cash were seized during the searches, it added.

The agency claimed that a sum of about Rs 13.41 crore “has been transferred to F7 Broadcast from various companies related to Bike Bot”.

“In addition, around Rs 2.63 crore have been transferred to this company from various educational institutions and trusts. The funds were found to have been transferred out of the funds of the Bike Bot investors,” ED claimed.

ED also said, “Bike Bot scam mastermind Sanjay Bhati had also named Tyagi during his examination as the one who got backdated cheques signed by him for the financial transactions.”

“It was revealed during investigation that Tyagi was in constant contact with Hooda and was operating on his directions but had concealed this during his examination by ED.”

“Tyagi was evasive on queries regarding Hooda and the money transferred by him,” ED alleged.

The Greater Noida-headquartered Bike Bot taxi service is accused of duping 2.25 lakh investors in multiple states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, of Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 crore.

The ED had booked Garvit Innovative Promoters Ltd, which ran the alleged ponzi scheme, its promoter Bhati and others under the PMLA in June last year after going through multiple FIRs filed against them by the Noida police.

Around Rs 2.63 crore have been transferred to this company ED