Investor’s chance visit blew lid off Mittal’s eatery outing

Noida: Had an investor in Abhinav Mittal’s Rs 3,700-crore online trading fraud not been in Cleo County on Tuesday to see a flat, the Ponzi scam kingpin’s visit to the housing society with a police team, when he was supposed to be on his way to jail in Lucknow, might never have come to light.
While an embarrassed UP Police suspended six constables on Tuesday, police are yet to identify the property dealer friend whom Mittal had reportedly come to visit at Cleo County. The suspensions came after four videos showing Mittal at the restaurant with the cops, who had brought him from Lucknow to attend a court hearing in Faridabad, hit social media.
Around 3pm, Mittal was discussing his case and the status of his properties which have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with five men in plain clothes in the restaurant when he was spotted by the investor. “My relative had gone to the society to see a flat for his family. In the restaurant, he chanced upon Mittal, who was seated with some friends. He informed us about Mittal, and we in turn informed other investors and went there,” said a relative of the person who spotted Mittal, who also happens to be an investor in the Ponzi scheme.
A resident of Sector 20, the investor said he and his family members and friends had invested lakhs of rupees in the different schemes floated by Mittal’s Ablaze Info Solutions, which was behind the Ponzi scam. “We overheard him talk about the case and how his assets were attached by the ED,” the investor said. The group of investors and locals made videos of Mittal with the cops and confronted him about their money. Police were informed and a team soon arrived and took Mittal to the police station.
Noida police is unaware whom Mittal came to visit in Cleo County. Inspector Harinandan Sharma from Phase 3 police station said, “We did not inquire into whose flat he came as the matter has nothing to do with us.” Who informed local police about Mittal’s presence in Noida is another mystery as the investors claimed that it was not them. “We didn’t call police. The PCR team came straightway and picked Mittal up as if they knew where he was already,” an investor said.
Interestingly, Mittal wasn’t picked up by a Dial 100 police response vehicle, which usually attends to calls on 100, but a PCR van.