Nagpur: Vijay Gurnule, 39, who has passed Standard XII, allegedly masterminded a Rs70 crore fraud along with his accomplices and duped around 15,000 investors across at least 10 states. He kept promising investors lucrative returns from various schemes of real estate, crypto-currency, stock market and multi-level marketing. Avinash Mahadole, a government employee, has also been arrested for his role in the racket.
Rana Pratap Nagar police team were involved in a dramatic chase of over 25km to nab Gurnule, who also tried to jump out of the car and flee into the bushes, in the early hours of Thursday. Police also arrested his aide Devendra Gajbhiye later in the day. Gurnule, who had floated three different schemes to dupe depositors since 2015, has been remanded to police custody for 14 days after he was produced before the court.
Zonal DCP Noorul Hassan, while addressing the media along with Addl CPs Dilip Zalke, Navinchandra Reddy and senior inspector Bhimrao Khandale of Rana Pratap Nagar police station, said so far nine persons have been arrested while more could be taken into custody. “Gurnule and the racket had so far floated three companies, Metro Vision Buildcon India Limited, Real Trade (since April this year), and Metro Coin (October this year) to dupe gullible investors by floating various schemes offering lucrative returns,” said Hassan.
The DCP and Addl CP Reddy were instrumental in registering the offence and also picking up the key racketeers. “From the cash flow and payouts in various documents, we can state that the racketeers had duped people of Rs70 crore, and this figure could go up to Rs100 crore,” said the DCP.
Hassan said a special team comprising two sub-inspectors of Rana Pratap Nagar police station would be formed to probe the case. “We would request an officer of the inspector rank from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to be part of the team. Professionals like chartered accountants, company secretaries and so on would also hired,” said the DCP.
Hassan said Gurnule and others had floated the first scheme of Metro Vision Buildcon India Limited, where he had offered depositors investment in a real estate scheme from where lucrative returns were promised. “Gurnule had purchased 10 acre land at Karanja and projected it as his scheme to the depositors, where they could invest money and get either a plot or monetary returns on a monthly basis,” he said.
“After failing to pay the depositors, Gurnule had floated ‘Real Trade’, where he offered weekly returns and also had made some payments to gain confidence of depositors. He had later floated the crypto-currency scheme offering double returns,” said the DCP.
Addl CP Zalke said the racketeers mostly targeted middle and lower income groups, who could be easily drawn into the trap.