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Fraudster dupes over 200 high net worth individuals of Rs300 crores, absconding
PUNE: Till Friday - when he was accused of duping more than 200 techies of Rs300 crores – most investors knew Selva Kumar Nadar, 39, promoter and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ashtavinayak Group, as someone who was going to give them high returns on their investment
PUNE: Till Friday - when he was accused of duping more than 200 techies of Rs300 crores – most investors knew Selva Kumar Nadar, 39, promoter and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ashtavinayak Group, as someone who was going to give them high returns on their investment. Except that Nadar never intended to return anything to them. The economic offences wing of the Pune city police in its first information report (FIR) has accused Nadar of duping high-income investors on the pretext of high returns on their investment. These investors are now staring at an uncertain future, with Nadar’s whereabouts unknown and prospects of recovery of their money looking dim.
A promoter and the Chief Executive Officer (CeO) at Ashtavinyak Group, the group he founded, Nadar before starting an investment firm worked as a Manager at a private banking firm. On Friday, his name for allegedly duping over 200 people, mostly techies working at senior positions with high income, to the tune of ₹300 crore on the pretext of high returns on investments. These investors are now staring at an uncertain future with Nadar’s whereabouts unknwon and previous such cases indicate the recovery of money is tough.
In 2014, he formed his own group by the name of Ashtavinyak Group and started running companies like Ashtavinyak Investment, Ashtavinyak Jewelers, Ashtavinyak Training Academy and did partnership with Shiv Eye- Pune and Makers Girls Hostel-Pune. He has his office in Dubai as well.
According to the police, Nadar, completed his engineering as well as a Masters in Finance from Mumbai and worked with several investment firms in the capital market before forming his own group in 2014. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, he was brought up in Maharashtra. His sister lives in Canada with his mother while he used to live in Pune with his wife and five-year-old son. Some of his family members are on the boards of directors of various subsidiaries of the Ashtavinayak Group.
Among Nadar’s victims, Sachin Purshottam Pawar, a resident of Karmabhumi Nagar in Lohegaon, works with a multinational banking company. Pawar received a call from Nadar’s investment firm in 2020 and was told that the firm tied up with many banking companies and took personal loans in the name of its clients, investing the money in various schemes and giving the returns to the clients apart from paying their EMIs. Pawar was lured with an eight to 12% interest rate on his investment apart from the fact that the EMIs would be paid by Nadar’s investment firm. After Pawar gave his consent, the investment firm took multiple loans in his name. After December 2022, the investment firm stopped paying his EMIs. When Pawar repeatedly asked for payment of the EMIs, the accused Nadar gave him cheques in January 2023, which were dishonoured. Pawar alleged that the investment firm had duped him to the tune of Rs36.65 lakhs. It was only later that he came to know that many other investors had been similarly duped by Nadar and that when they tried to contact Nadar, they could not get through.
Another victim, Tipu Sultan Nadaf, 35, a resident of Wagholi, works with an IT company as technical support. Nadar convinced Nadaf and took a loan of Rs78 lakhs from seven different banks/financial institutes in August 2021 in Nadaf’s name with the promise to pay EMIs of Rs170,000 per month. While Nadar paid the EMIs till January 2023, the banks are now calling Nadaf to pay the remaining EMIs. To add to Nadaf’s woes, his wife has been hospitalised for a lung transplant for which he needs to pay Rs55 lakhs. “I don’t know what to do? On one hand, I am running behind doctors to save my wife. On the other hand, the banks are asking me to pay the pending EMIs,’’ Nadaf said.
A third victim, brother of one Asha Jadhav (name changed on request), works with a software firm and was conned by Nadar into investing Rs75 lakhs by taking loans from seven to eight different banks in October 2021. Nadar promised to pay his EMIs of Rs1.25 lakhs per month. However, the EMIs have stopped since January 2022 and Asha Jadhav’s brother is now being pestered by the banks to pay the remaining EMIs.
Shrinivas Ghadge, deputy commissioner of police (economic offences wing), said about Nadar’s modus operandi, “He used to take loans in the name of his clients and would invest the loan amounts in the market and assure them good returns after the end of the tenure. But due to the Covid outbreak, his money management collapsed and he started facing troubles.”
Ghadge appealed to people to be cautious while investing their hard-earned money and to be alert while sharing their personal documents with anyone.
Dr Smita Sohoni, a financial expert, cautioned, “When anybody is thinking of investing their money, they should go with the proper channel. There are many official ways in the market through which you can grow your money. But do not use any shortcuts for growing your money.’’
Sohoni further advised people to carry out their own research before investing in any scheme. Blindly following anyone promising high returns on investment might land a person in trouble, she warned.
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