Rajkot: In yet another fraud of gullible people being cheated with lucrative high-interest schemes, scamsters siphoned off around Rs 4.73 crore of nearly 112 people by floating three firms including a credit co-operative society in Rajkot.
University police station sources said that most of the victims were daily wagers who lost their precious savings after investing in various schemes floated by the accused.
Rajesh Vaghela, a resident of Parsananagar, who works in a showroom as well as a sweeper in the local civic body, lodged a complaint against Pradeep Davera, Divyesh Kalawadia and Hitesh Lukka after losing Rs four lakh.
Pradeep Davera is a chairman of the Ashish Credit Cooperative Society and two other firms — Samay Trading and Sai Samay Trading.
“The accused had floated various schemes like daily savings, monthly savings and yearly savings and lured small-time investors with the promise of high interest. They also promised 10% monthly return on investment in the share market. Most of the victims did not have any idea about the stock market. They were only attracted by the high returns on their investment,” said a police official.
Vaghela had invested Rs five lakh in Samay Trading firm, an entity dealing in stock market, in 2018 and was promised monthly 10% return. However, when he started asking for returns, the accused told him that he would be given a consolidated amount after every three months. Later, the accused stopped responding to Vaghela’s phone calls and queries. When Vaghela demanded total repayment of his investment, he was given only Rs one lakh.
“The complainant was in need of money and demanded all his money back. Since he did not receive it he finally approached police,” said an official.
They were booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code including cheating and criminal conspiracy. This was the second such complaint in the last 10 days in Rajkot city where gullible investors were lured with the promise of high interest rates and big returns on their investment.
Earlier, on March 25 the chairman and vice chairman of Parishram Credit Society, located on Nirmala Road in Rajkot, were booked for allegedly siphoning off around Rs one crore of investors’ money. The accused are still out of police reach.