Supermarket fraud: 4 stores opened to lure more targets

Noida: Like all good scams, the Hyper Supermarket plot is getting thicker with each passing day.
To build trust with their targets who invested Rs 25-30 crore in the franchise scheme, the fraudsters behind the fake retain chain racket allegedly provided interiors and logistics for opening four stores in northern India.
These stores in Delhi’s Hari Nagar, Uttarakhand’s Dehradun and Punjab’s Ludhiana and Batala towns, were all opened between 2019 and March 2020, and aimed at luring more investors too, TOI has learnt.
While the franchise store owners did get returns for two-three months, the fake firm stopped their payments subsequently, before the accused finally shut their office in Sector 63 and disappeared.
Potential investors were asked to visit these stores before investing in the scheme.
Krishna Yadav, one of the investors who invested some Rs 23 lakh in the scheme, said that when he showed interest in the scheme and contacted one of the accused, “I was asked to visit their store in Delhi’s Hari Nagar”.
However, this store was shut soon after the imposition of Covid lockdown. When its “owner” Om Prakash slapped a legal notice on the fake firm, the accused asked him to compromise, “or they will declare the company bankrupt”.
Prakash is one of the complaints in the case.
In fact, the eight FIRs so far lodged in the Hyper Supermarket scam at the Phase III police station, following complaints from investors in UP, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, name at least 12 accused.
They are Manish Dahiya, Kunal Keshav, Ankur, Arun Modi, Sanjeev Sharma, Ashish Joshi, Rohit Yadav, Vikas Shekhawat, Vaishali, Amardeep, Amarjit and Aprichita Shah. Nine of the accused figure in all the FIRs.
Interestingly, Kunal Keshav who finds a mention in at least five of the eight FIRs has been made a government witness in the case by the Phase III police.
However, police claim to have identified seven more 19 accused in the scam, including the mastermind, Rajesh Sharma, who is absconding.
DCP (central Noida) Harish Chander told TOI that in all, 19 accused have been identified so far, including directors of the “company” and others holding key positions.
Five of the accused have already been arrested, officials said. Cops have recovered assets worth Rs 8 crore, including several luxury cars and three flats from the arrested accused, who were operating out of a building in Sector 63.
Police said the accused had floated a startup — Hyper Supermarket — and invited online applications for investments in franchises. The fraud is The fraud is likely to run into several crores, cops suspect.