Man, his son held for duping hundreds of over Rs 2 crore
New Delhi: A man and his son were arrested for allegedly duping over 200 people of Rs 2.1 crore by luring them into investing in a “government-approved” lucky draw scheme, police said on Sunday.
The accused, Bhuvnesh Gupta (59) and his son Vivek (34), who had been absconding, ran a jewellery shop at Uttam Nagar from where they were arrested on Saturday by a team of the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, they said.
A case was registered against them last year for allegedly inducing and duping investors in the name of a government-approved lucky draw scheme namely Shree Mohini Enterprises and they also showed fake government agency papers to convince the victims. As the accused were running a jewellery shop in the area, the victims believed them, a senior police officer said.
Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) OP Mishra said the accused introduced two schemes in June 2017. In the first scheme, every member had to deposit Rs 3,000 per month and in the second one, each member had to deposit Rs 75,000 per month for a period of 20 months. They also offered costly items like car, AC and fridge as prize in these schemes.
“The victims were further induced that if any member of the scheme failed to get proposed prizes in the lucky draw, they would be given jewellery. The accused also distributed pamphlets about the schemes and held 18 draws up to November, 2018 but later, they shut their shops overnight and ran away from the locality after collecting approximately Rs 2.21 crore from multiple victims,” he said.
During the investigation, police collected all the receipts the victims had and also obtained bank statements of Gupta and his son. The EOW conducted several raids at their shop and residence but the accused were absconding and were frequently changing their location, the officer said.
“During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the accused used to issue membership cards to the prospective investors in lieu of investment made in the opted scheme. They also prepared and distributed pamphlets regarding the schemes. Thereafter, they even held draws for more than a year to win the trust of the investors. Later, they closed their operations and fled the area overnight,” Mishra said.
Gupta and his family hail from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and have been living in Delhi for the past 30 years, police said.
