Businessman who fled with Rs 5 crore a decade ago held

GURUGRAM: The special task force (STF) of Haryana Police arrested an industrialist who is wanted in a 10-year-old case of fraud. The accused, Somdev, a resident of Dehkora in Jhajjar, was arrested from Rewari bus stand on Sunday afternoon.
Police sources said 55-year-old Somdev, an industrialist, was booked for fraud after he had fled with over Rs 5 crore he had taken from a doctor in Bahadurgarh.

Police said he had borrowed the money offering a higher rate of interest, but never paid back, and had been booked under a case of fraud registered in Rewari in 2008, when he fled arrest. IG Saurabh Singh of the STF said Somdev was on their list of ‘most wanted’, because he had committed several frauds before he fled from the state. He had a prize of Rs 50,000 on him, declared by the court after he fled arrest. Police said apart from the doctor, he had also fleeced other people, but the transactions were mostly cash-based. “We expect more people to come forward now,” Singh said. The accused started going by the name of Surender Sharma and had changed his appearance, a police spokesperson said. Sources in the Rewari STF tipped Gurugram STF about his whereabouts, on the basis of which his arrest was made.

SP (STF-Gurugram) Sateesh Balan said, “The accused was living with his wife in Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh. While this is the only criminal case against him, there are several civil cases in which he is wanted as well.” Somdev has been sent to judicial custody.