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Man arrested for duping people across India through Ponzi schemes
Ashish Malik was evading arrest since 2019 when a case was registered against him and his two accomplices on a Delhi court’s direction
New Delhi: The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday said it has arrested a 36-year-old man in connection with alleged duping of over 1,000 people across India of nearly ₹100 crores through Ponzi schemes.
Ashish Malik, the accused who has an MBA degree, was arrested from his native Kakrola village in south-west Delhi on Tuesday. He was evading arrest since 2019 when he was booked along with his two accomplices on a Delhi court’s direction following one Anand Laxman Pardeshi’s complaint.
Joint police commissioner (EOW) Chhaya Sharma said the accomplices, Sandeep Kaushik and Sunil Singh Chauhan, have fled abroad and that they have issued look out circulars against them
Pardeshi said he met Kaushik, Malik, and Chauhan, who introduced themselves as directors of different companies, at a seminar at a hotel in Delhi’s Paschim Vihar in May 2016. He was told that people present at the seminar were part of a Russian oil company.
Sharma said the three accused told Pardeshi the company was offering 20% returns every month to investors against their investments. “Pardeshi invested ₹89.18 lakh and got the returns for the first two months. Thereafter, the payment was stopped on the pretext of false promises.”
Sharma cited the investigation and said the suspects cheated investors across India using the similar modus operandi. They would conduct seminars in five-star hotels to win confidence of investors and told them their investments will further be invested in crypto coins in the name of the Russian company.
“A crypto exchange/website was also created by the accused persons. The victims were given unique IDs and their profiles were created. After collecting crores of rupees from more than 1000 victims, the accused withdrew the entire amount [in Bitcoin] from the exchange and fled India...,” said Sharma.
