Bike taxi scam: Investors flock to police station

Greater Noida: As many as 100 investors of bike taxi firm Bike Bot filed police complaints against owner Sanjay Bhati, a BSP functionary from Greater Noida, and five directors on Friday for allegedly duping them after offering lucrative returns on investment.
Bhati, from Dadri, was a BSP candidate in the 2014 polls. The five accused directors are, Rajesh Bharadwaj, Sunil Kumar Prajapati, Deepti Behl, Sachin Bhati, and Karan Pal Singh.

The complainants who claimed they were from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and Chhattisgarh alleged they have been duped of amounts ranging from Rs 62,000 to Rs 32 lakh. They said the accused started the company in August 2017. It was based on a multilevel marketing model and added 2.4 lakh investors.

Ravindra Kumar, a doctor from Jaipur, said pamphlets were circulated saying a bike taxi firm was being launched and the directors were seeking investments from the public, as they wanted to share benefits. “I joined in August 2018 and invested around Rs 12 lakh. But suddenly, in November 2018, officials said they were changing the rate of interest and asked the investors to put in more money to avail the old rates. By then I had invested Rs 22 lakh more. But I only got Rs 10 lakh in return. Since November 2018, not a single rupee has been credited to my account,” he said. Investors alleged that the scheme was scraped in November 2018.

Vineet Jaiswal, SP (rural) Greater Noida, said: “We have been getting complaints based on which four cases of cheating and forgery have been filed against the owner and five directors. Friday was the first time that people came in a group. The complaint will be converted into FIR. The accused are on the run.”