Kolkata: Howrah cash haul tops Rs 8.1 crore, accused on run

KOLKATA: The detective department of Kolkata Police has issued lookout circulars against two brothers from Howrah after Rs 8.1 crore cash and diamond and gold ornaments were seized from their two flats. Currently, the two brothers, Shailesh and Arvind Pandey, are on the run.
On October 15, Rs 2.2 crore was recovered from a car belonging to Arvind while two raids were conducted on October 15 and 16 at his brother Shailesh's two upscale flats at Howrah's Shibpur. Cops recovered Rs 5.9 crore from one of the flats and ornaments from both the flats.
"A look-out Circular has been issued against Shailesh and Arvind. The process has also been initiated against Rohit Pandey, another sibling of the two," said a DCP who is leading the probe.
According to sources, cops have not been able to contact with anyone from the Pandey family till now. "We can now confirm that the two accounts, where we have frozen Rs 20 crore, belong to the companies registered at Strand Road. We believe that one of the suspects owns both these companies," said sources.
Both the companies linked to Pandeys were used as shell companies. "It seems that they had developed a forex trading training app and invited applicants to enrol. Once the victims enrolled themselves for an initial fee of 125 dollars, they were promised a major commission in lieu of getting new students subscribing to the app through an elaborate chain-marketing system. The two accounts flagged by Canara Bank that lodged the FIR were used to deposit money, which was further transferred to three separate accounts before it was again transferred to four other accounts," said a senior officer at Lalbazar.
According to the police, one of the two accounts was reportedly opened at Canara Bank in the name of a food grain supplying company located at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.
Cops said Pandeys had violated multiple RBI guidelines. "We found that the multiple accounts were operated using the documents of customers who did not have any knowledge about the illegal transactions. We have identified a few such persons and we are recording their statements," said an officer.