PUNE: The Pune police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is investigating a Rs3.25 crore investment fraud in which 20 people, including teachers, ex-servicemen and private company employees, were cheated between July 2021 and Oct 2022 by a share trading company in Satara, with the lure of high returns on investment.
On Saturday, the Bharati Vidyapeeth police registered a formal FIR in this connection against seven office-bearers of the company, after the EOW completed the verification of a complaint application filed a month ago by a teacher (38) from Ambegaon Pathar, and others.
Inspector Gurudutta More of the EOW told TOI, “A verification of the contents of the complaint application and the bank accounts of the affected investors showed that the money was transferred from their account to three accounts — one each in two private banks and the third in a nationalised bank, all in Satara — of the share trading company. We have sought details of these three accounts from the respective banks and will soon initiate the action to seize office gadgets and properties of the company as part of our investigation.”
More said the complainants took time in approaching the police as they kept negotiating with the company for the return of their invested money. The company representatives kept promising them to return their money but did not do so. “The verification exercise led us to formally lodge an FIR with the Bharati Vidyapeeth police,” he added.
The complainant’s friend, also a teacher in Satara, had invested money with the firm and had suggested he should also invest with the firm to get higher returns. In this way, the people operating the firm came in contact with the victim. “Later, their friends, mostly ex-servicemen and private firm employees, joined them in investing amounts ranging from Rs10 lakh to Rs40 lakh with the firm,” More said.
“The firm officials used to visit homes of the investors or used to call them for meetings in eateries or hotels located in the Katraj area,” he said adding, “The fraudsters always presented themselves as professionals. Initially, the company did pay them the promised returns for a couple of months but later stopped making payments. When they sought a refund of their investment, the company failed to give it to them.”
One of the victims told TOI, “We came to know about the firm from a common friend. The office-bearers of the firm explained to us the investment plans and shared the account numbers and then we transferred money to these accounts; some have given cash to them. When the firm stopped payments to us, we tried to locate them on the addresses mentioned on the documents.”
