Kolkata trading firm owner held from Delhi airport for duping investor of ₹4.5 crore

A senior police official said that the accused had planned to dupe one of his investors to cover up for the hefty losses he had suffered through share market trading.

Gurugram: A trading firm owner was arrested from Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi on Friday for duping ₹4.49 crore from a Gurugram investor, police said on Saturday.

Policesaid the accused was taken on a police remand for interrogation and be produced before a court.

The accused identified as Ravi Chouhan, 45, a resident of Bangar complex at Shahpur Bora in West Bengal, was trying to fly to Kolkata to avoid getting caught, police added.

Chouhan, a high school graduate, was running a trading firm named Kalptaru Shares and Stock Broking Private Limited from 2016 registered with the Registrar of Companies in Kolkata, police said.

A senior police official said that the accused had planned to dupe one of his investors, Apratim Chauhan, to cover up for the hefty losses he had suffered through share market trading.

“Apratim owns two investment firms in Kolkata and Delhi. The accused made a deal with the victim to purchase 20000 equity shares of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Limited,” he said.

The victim transacted money to Chouhan’s firm account on June 17, however, did not receive any shares, police added.

Investigators said that Apratim sent his employee, Shivam Singh, to Kolkata to find that the company didn’t exist as per the document address.

The accused made Shivam sign a document and created a forged notarised settlement letter for Apritam, police said. adding that the notary and advocate whose signatures and seals were on the paper denied any involvement.

Police officials said the accused had also given two post-date cheques to Apritam but they were dishonoured at banks.

The Gurugram police economic offences wing (EOW) investigated the matter following which the victim filed a complaint against Ravi and his firm’s chief financial officer (CFO) under sections 316(2), 318(4) and 61 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at DLF police station in sector-29 on October 13.

Sandeep Turan, Gurugram police public relations officer, said Chouhan was taken on a police remand for interrogation and will be produced before a court on Saturday. “The EOW is trying to trace Apritam’s money. Further investigation will ascertain if the CFO is also involved in the fraud,” he added.