Three more arrested in Bike Bot scam

The SIT team has arrested three additional directors of Garvit Innovative Promoters Limited for allegedly floating Rs 2,000 crore Bike Bot ponzi scam, amounting to a total of eight arrests in the case.

Three additional directors of Garvit Innovative Promoters Limited (GIPL), the firm which allegedly floated the ₹2,000 crore Bike Bot ponzi scam, were arrested by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Greater Noida on Monday. With these arrests, a total of eight people have been arrested in the case.

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According to the police, one of the suspects Harish Kumar is a retired havildar of the Indian Army. The other two suspects are Rakesh Singh, a resident of Jalandhar and Vishal Kumar, a resident of Meerut.

“The Noida police had formed an SIT to investigate the case. The team conducted searches at various places in Greater Noida and arrested the three suspects,” he said.

Police said Harish had retired from Army in 2017 and then allegedly joined GIPL as an additional director. “He networked and roped in several officials of the armed forces for investment in the company. The company had also given him a Toyota Fortuner SUV for his personal use. During interrogation, the suspect revealed he had received ₹20 lakh from the firm in the last two years,” the SSP said.

The SSP said 18 bank accounts of the company have been frozen. “Investigations revealed the company has duped several investors of around ₹2,000 crore in the last two years. The police had earlier also seized 35 luxury vehicles from them,” he said.

Investors of the Bike Bot scheme had filed at least 46 cases against company officials in different police stations. GIPL’s owner Sanjay Bhati and three directors Vijay Pal Kasana, Vinod Chauhan, Rajesh Bharadwaj, and a liaison officer Adesh Bhati, are in judicial custody.

Sanjay Bhati had allegedly set up GIPL in 2010, which allegedly the floated Bike Bot scheme in 2017. The company had sought ₹62,000 as investment per motorcycle from investors, promising them ₹9,765 as returns per month for one year. The offer drew around 2.25 lakh investors who were later allegedly duped.