The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrested the director of a finance company for allegedly cheating more than 500 people on the pretext of getting them to invest in schemes and fixed deposits.
Police identified the accused as Murari Kumar Srivastav, and alleged that he had fled with more than Rs 3.5 crore of investors’ money.
R K Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW), said Srivastav ran the company along with other directors at Paharganj. Police said they are questioning Srivastav and conducting raids and to make more arrests.
“They targeted investors in Delhi-NCR and collected more than Rs 3.5 crore. The accused promised returns on the investments but shut the company and fled. We have found that 531 people were cheated by the accused,” said Singh.
Police initially received complaints from 38 people. Most of them invested Rs 2 lakh-Rs 10 lakh in the schemes. The people said they were promised 18% interest on the schemes. They were also told that the company is registered with the Reserve Bank of India and authorised by the government.
“The company had been cheating people for three years. We are yet to receive other complaints and ascertain the total amount. They were neither registered with RBI nor authorised,” said Singh.
After a case was registered by the EOW, teams were sent to arrest the directors. Using technical surveillance, Srivastav was traced to Bihar and arrested from Humayunpur village.
Srivastav and his associates allegedly collected investments mostly through cash to avoid being caught, police said. “After collecting more than Rs 3.5 crore from over 500 investors, he shut down the company, sold his house, and ran away along with other associates,” said Singh.
The directors were allegedly collecting small payments from their investors and maintained a passbook and records. Initially, to “attract” more people, the accused returned the money to a few investors and gained the trust of many investors who were later cheated, said police.
