Accused in Rs 54L cheating case nabbed

Vadodara: The detection of crime branch (DCB) arrested 40-year-old Jayanti Patel, one of the accused in the Rs54 lakh cheating case, lodged by a citizen last month.
Patel, who was nabbed from the office of Spita India Land Project Pvt Ltd in Surat, is a close aide of Praveen Patel, the prime accused in this case as well as cryptocurrency fraud.

Police said Jayanti was in touch with Praveen, who is on the run for last few weeks. “When we went to Surat office of this firm, Jayanti was present there. During investigations, we learnt that he was in touch with Praveen and was passing on information about developments in the cases filed against him,” said Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, DCP (crime).

Madhesinh Chauhan, a resident of Gorwa, had filed cheating case against Praveen and two others last month. Praveen had told Chauhan that he runs Spita India Land Project Ltd in Surat and convinced the latter to invest in the company. Chauhan discussed the investment scheme with his brothers and invested in Patel’s company.

Chauhan nitially invested Rs12 lakh and the accused later deposited Rs1.93 lakh in his bank account to gain his trust. Chauhan invested another Rs1 lakh in Patel’s company and got some money in return.

Later, Chauhan didn’t get any returns for two months and when he contacted Patel, the latter said there was partnership issue in the company. Patel then convinced Chauhan to invest Rs5 lakh in another company. But Chauhan didn’t get any returns on his investment later. Chauhan told cops that Patel made several excuses instead of returning his money. Chauhan also said Leena Kulkarni, a resident of Pune, too was duped of Rs35 lakh by Patel.

In the cryptocurrency fraud, Praveen is accused of defrauding several citizens by convincing them to invest in payway coins by promising handsome returns. But the victims neither got returns nor the invested sum.