Gujarat: School teacher, kin lose over Rs 2 crore in financial fraud

RAJKOT: Lured by handsome returns, a primary school teacher and his relatives lost Rs 2.37 crore in a fraud that was executed by his college friend and two others, who are also teachers, in Jamnagar’s Jamjodhpur town.
The victim, Himanshu Mehta and his relatives, invested a total of Rs 2.37 crore between April 2019 and September 2021, in four finance companies started by the accused Bhavesh Mehta, Nizar Adatiya and Dolat Ahuja in Jamnagar. Ahuja and Adatiya are also teachers.
In 2014, Bhavesh started two trading firms and approached Mehta offering good returns on investment. However, Mehta was wary about investing and refused. Bhavesh and others then approached him again in 2018 and said they had an office in Dubai too, which Mehta even visited once while on a family trip.
Mehta got convinced about their business and invested Rs 5 lakh with their firm in April 2019. They started giving him Rs 15,000 per month as a profit. Mehta then asked his relatives also to invest in their schemes.
However, after September 2021, the accused stopped paying him and other investors. Despite repeated calls, they did not respond, forcing Mehta to approach the police.
K J Jhala, investigating officer, Jamjodhpur police station, said, “Mehta has told us that there were at least 200 more people who had invested in the accused’s companies. All three have fled from Jamnagar.”
They were booked under relevant IPC sections including criminal conspiracy and cheating.