NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested a man for allegedly cheating people of their investments through schemes offered by him promising high returns, a senior police official said on Sunday. The accused, Murari Kumar Srivastav, was arrested from Humayunpur village, Sitamari district in Bihar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing) R K Singh said.
The arrest was made on a complaint made by 38 people, who alleged that a company called 'Progress Producer Company Limited' and its directors cheated them of their money invested in the schemes offered by the firm, Singh said.
Around 531 victims invested money in these schemes. The directors of the company collected around Rs 3.5 crore from duped investors and fled, the officer said.
Srivastav, along with his acquaintances, operated the company from Paharganj and targeted people from Delhi-NCR.
Most of the payments were collected in cash. He also sold his house here before running away, police said.
The investigation conducted so far has revealed that the accused used to accept the monthly deposit mostly in cash and the investors would maintain the record of investment in a passbook.
The investors were enticed with an offer of 18 per cent interest upon the maturity of the schemes. Srivastav also paid good returns to some of the investors in the initial stage to win their faith and to attract more investors, police said.
In 2018, some money was paid back in lump sum after maturity of the scheme, but when the investors started asking Srivastav and other directors of the company to return their money with the returns promised, the accused absconded.
The company was not found registered with the Reserve Bank of India and was not authorised to collect money from the investors in any scheme, police said.
Further investigation is underway to trace other accomplices in the crime, police added.
