Three investment-scheme frauds arrested

Three persons were arrested for duping several people on the pretext of providing them high return on investments in their companies, which they start regularly, police said on Thursday.

Mahesh Kant Maheshwari, 32, Manoj Kumar, 42, and Surender Choudhary, 43, were arrested from Indrapuram in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, said Additional Commissioner of Police (central) Devesh Chandra Srivastva.

They were held on a complaint of Praveen who told police that Maheshwari approached him and introduced himself as an eminent and prestigious businessman.

“Slowly, Maheshwari developed a close working relationship with him and won his trust. He also introduced his business partners Choudhary and Kumar,” said Srivastva.

They advised him to invest money in their firm MoneyLeaf.Net, which was into a number of businesses like trading, sale and purchase of commodities and shares, export-import trading in gems, jewels and precious stones and running various investment schemes.

They assured Praveen a huge return on the investment. On this, Praveen made an investment of Rs 50 lakh in instalments.

“Initially, Praveen was given monthly 20 per cent interest on invested money, but later, the company stopped giving interest.

After that, Praveen visited their office at Karol Bagh in central Delhi. They assured him that there were some financial problems with the company, which would be resolved within few days,” said Srivastva.

In April, when Praveen again visited the office at Karol Bagh, it was found locked. He came to know that there are many cases pending against them in various courts.
“Preveen approached us and registered a case. On Wednesday, Maheshwari and Kumar were arrested from Amarpali village in Indrapuram,” said Srivastva. Choudhary was arrested from Jaipur in Rajasthan.

During interrogation, they told police that they used to hire local agents, who used to lure people to invest in the company and as per the invested money, the agents were given their share.

“After few months, when a huge amount was collected, they used to close the firm and  go into hiding. They had lured the investors from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. Initially, they used to give huge return to the investor to gain confidence, following which they closed the firm and shifted their base,”  Srivastva.

The officer also said they are trying to ascertain the number of people they have duped so far.