The APMC police have registered a case against a cooperative society for cheating 274 investors of ₹60.80 lakh.
Shakti Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, who had a branch at APMC, had shut its office after cheating people. According to the police, the society has its headquarters in Pune. The case is being investigated by the economic offence wing (EOW), unit I.
“The cooperative society had started 42 investment schemes to attract investors. In one of the schemes, they asked people to invest ₹1 lakh each and assured that they would get commission for the next 17 investors who would invest on their reference. The society had claimed to have investments in media, real estate, and diagnostic centres,” assistant police inspector Atul Lambe, EOW, said.
Till January 2018, the investors had received their share of commission and after that the commission money was stopped. When they approached the society, they were asked for some more time to clear their payments. The society then closed its business without informing the investors, the police said.
“When we received the written complaint from investors, the accused had presented themselves for preliminary inquiry. After the inquiry, we registered an offence against them,” Mr. Lambe said.
The society has eight branches in the State. “The one in Navi Mumbai was started in October 2015. The accused have claimed that all the branches including Pune have been shut except the one in Paatan, Satara. We are yet to verify the claim,” Mr. Lambe said.
The case has been registered against the chairman of the society, Hemant Jambhale, and office-bearers identified as Ashok Barvarkar, Pramod Borate, Manish Rane, Vijay Bhukan, Kishore Jadhav, Ramdas Kaule, Santosh Jadhav, Pratibha Jambhale, Suvarna Baravkar, Ratnadeep Devkule, Eknath Bansode, Dayanand Rathod, Ajay Pal, Ravikant Mate, Vishwanath Shenoy, Narendra Shenoy, Sagar Londhe, and Dyaneahwar Barne.