Women’s group members cheated of Rs 1.7 lakh

Vadodara: A member of a women’s group cheated 34 members by siphoning off their money which were meant to be paid to private banks as EMIs. The woman identified as Neeta Soni was booked for cheating at Jawaharnagar police station when it came to light that she had not deposited Rs 1.7 lakh collected from members of the group with the banks.
The members of the group living in Ranoli had taken loans of different amounts from three different private banks to start their own ventures. Soni, who led the group, was assigned the responsibility to collect the instalments from all borrowers every week and hand it over to banks’ executives. As per the routine, Soni collected the instalment of over Rs 1.7 lakh from 34 members on July 22 and kept it with her.
On the same day later, one of the banks’ executives approached the members for the instalments. The members told them that Soni had already collected the money and she was at her home. When the bank’s executives went to Soni’s house, she was not there. The members then tried to call her, but she had switched off her phone.
The victims waited for two days for Soni to return or call them back. But when there was no trace of her, they approached police and an offence was registered against Soni.