Noida’s Rs 1300-cr ‘Bike Bot’ ponzi scheme case: EOW raids 5 UP cities, recovers 178 bike taxis

MEERUT: Uttar Pradesh Police’s economic offence wing (EOW) on Monday conducted raids in five cities of the state and confiscated at least 178 unused motorcycles as part of its ongoing probe into an alleged scam in which bike taxis were used to float a ponzi scheme from Greater Noida.
A whopping 2 lakh gullible investors were cheated across the country by promoters and a few employees of the company, Garvit Innovative Promoters. The case was transferred to EOW from police in February this year.

On Monday, the raids were conducted in Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Hapur. “Economic offence wing conducted the raids in five districts of Meerut zone. Our local teams in each district aided EOW sleuths in their operation and 178 bikes registered in the name of Garvit Innovative Promoters limited were recovered,” said Rajeev Sabharwal, additional director general (Meerut zone).

The EOW said that more such raids and recoveries are possible in the days to come.

“Based on the details of the documents already seized, we zeroed in on agents of the company in various districts. Five teams were formed and raids were simultaneously conducted in five districts. We expect to make more such recoveries in near future,” said Ramsuresh Yadav, additional superintendent of police (EOW).
According to sources, 50 motorcycles were recovered from Muzaffarnagar, 72 from Ghaziabad, 22 from Hapur, 21 from Meerut and 13 from Baghpat. Most of them were unused, parked at desolate godowns.
Floated in 2018 in Greater Noida, ‘Bike Bot’ scheme exploited the trend of rising demand of taxis across big cities. The company allegedly duped Rs 1300-crore from over 2 lakh investors in multiple states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, by promising to double investment within a year.
Monday’s raid was part of the ongoing investigation into the scam in which 57 cases have been registered against the 19 accused. Ten of the 19 accused, including owner of the firm, Sanjay Bhati, are in jail now. The rest are still on the run.