LUCC Rs 800 cr scam: CBI arrests two masterminds in Mumbai

Officials said that the alleged masterminds Kishan Jain and Pankaj Jain absconded after the Uttarakhand State Police registered 18 FIRs in this scam.

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested from Mumbai two alleged masterminds of the Rs 800 crore LUCC chitfund scam in Uttarakhand, officials said on Tuesday.

It is alleged that over one lakh investors of the Loni Urban Multi State Credit and Thrift Co-operative Society (LUCC) were cheated to the tune of Rs 800 crore with the promise of lucrative returns.

The alleged masterminds Kishan Jain and Pankaj Jain absconded after the Uttarakhand State Police registered 18 FIRs in this scam, they said.

The Uttarakhand High Court handed over the cases to the CBI in November last year, they said.

The agency traced them to Mumbai where they were arrested on Monday, the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

"Their arrests were made after sustained and intensive efforts by the investigating team involving analysis of voluminous financial records, examination of bank transactions, collection of oral evidence and extensive field investigation conducted across different States of the country," the statement said.

The agency said the case pertains to allegations of illegal collection of public deposits, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, operation of unregulated deposit schemes, misappropriation of funds etc. by LUCC, affecting a large number of depositors across multiple districts of Uttarakhand.

"Investigation, so far, has brought forth an unprecedented scale of victimisation of public in the state of Uttarakhand in which a very large number of investors (more than one lakh approx) were lured to invest in various unregulated deposit schemes of LUCC," the spokesperson said.

The total investment made by these depositors is estimated to be approximately Rs 800 crore, the spokesperson said.

The CBI probe has shown that Kishan Jain and Pankaj Jain are alleged to be amongst the primary accused persons.

In conspiracy with other accused, they had played active and significant role in the collection, handling, diversion and misappropriation of funds collected from depositors under various unregulated deposit schemes operated by LUCC, the CBI statement said.

It said the evidence indicates their involvement in the larger conspiracy relating to the routing, handling and utilisation of funds mobilised from lakhs of investors.

"After obtaining transit remand, both the accused will be produced before the BUDS Act Court at Dehradun," it said.

The CBI had earlier arrested five persons on May 12th and 13th, including three senior cooperative promoters of LUCC in Uttarakhand, who had actively collected deposits from public in Uttarakhand and were managing chest branches.

"All these five accused persons are presently in judicial custody at Sudhowala Jail in Dehradun," the CBI Spokesperson said.

The agency has also obtained details of several immovable properties acquired by the accused from the proceeds of crime.

These records have been shared with the secretary finance, Uttarakhand government with a request to freeze these properties and take necessary action to distribute them to the victims under the provisions of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act, the CBI said.