Lucknow: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh Police arrested key individuals involved in two major financial fraud cases that collectively defrauded investors of thousands of crores of rupees, officials on Thursday said.
The EOW team arrested Gurnam Singh, an operator of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), from Ropar district in Punjab.
PACL, formerly known as Gurwant Agrotech Limited, was registered in Rajasthan's Jaipur and later changed its name.
The company allegedly opened branches in 10 states, including Uttar Pradesh, and began banking operations without obtaining a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) registration under the RBI Act, 1934.
"The company is accused of collecting approximately Rs 49,000 crore from investors across these states, including Mahoba, Sultanpur, Farrukhabad and Jalaun in Uttar Pradesh, by promoting attractive schemes and promising land plots in exchange for RD (Recurring Deposit and FD (Fixed Deposit)," said EOW Director General (DG) Neera Rawat.
"However, the company later neither provided the plots nor returned the deposited funds, with its operators absconding after shutting down offices," added Rawat.
The Uttar Pradesh government had assigned the investigation of the PACL company's branch in Jalaun district to the EOW.
Following verification, an FIR was registered at EOW Police Station, Kanpur, under various sections of the IPC, including 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Gurnam Singh, who was among the 10 named accused in this case, was arrested by the EOW team on July 9.
Four other accused, who were also wanted in the CBI cases, have already been arrested and are currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
In another significant development, the EOW has arrested an absconding accused, Prem Prakash Singh, in connection with a Rs 250 crore fraud perpetrated by V-Care Multitrade Pvt. Ltd.
V-Care Multitrade Pvt. Ltd. was registered in 2008-09 in the Delhi NCR and Haryana under the Companies Act, 1956.
The company, through its regional office in Krishnanagar, Lucknow, allegedly lured customers with various benefits if they purchased policies from Reliance Life Insurance Company, Future Generali Life Insurance, and Aegon Life Insurance through V-Care Multitrade Pvt. Ltd," the EOW official said.
"The company is accused of collecting approximately '?¹250 crore through these policies and then embezzling the invested funds, shutting down its offices, and absconding," added Rawat.
A total of 26 cases were registered against the company at Krishnanagar and Aashiana police stations in Lucknow. The investigations into these cases were allocated to the EOW, Lucknow, by order of the Uttar Pradesh government on November 3, 2015.
During the investigation, the EOW, Lucknow, found a total of 23 named/identified accused guilty. Of these, 19 accused had been arrested and charge sheets filed earlier. One accused has since died," said the DG.
From the remaining three absconding accused, Prem Prakash Singh, son of Shivdayal Singh, a resident of Ranchi, Jharkhand, was arrested by the EOW on July 9 from Kolkata, West Bengal. Efforts to arrest the remaining two accused are ongoing, added Rawat.
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