Four booked for running Ponzi scheme, cheating people of lakhs

Four people, who allegedly cheated a huge number of people of lakhs by promising high rates of interest of the latter’s investments, were booked by the APMC police

Four people, who allegedly cheated a huge number of people of lakhs by promising high rates of interest of the latter’s investments, were booked by the APMC police on Thursday. None of them has been arrested.

HT Image

According to the police, the accused had taken money from the victims saying the money would be invested in ‘non-governmental’ establishments. They had also assured that the victims would get 1% interest of their investments every day for the next 200 days.

After they would get back their capital amounts. And if they were interested, they could again invest the capital amount in some other schemes for another 200 days, which would give even higher interests.

“Between November 2018 and March this year, the accused had taken lakhs of rupees from the victims. They were unable to give their interests as they had assured earlier. When the victims started contacting them asking back their money, the accused went into hiding. Even after repeated attempts when the victims could not contact them, they approached us and registered a complaint,” said a police officer from APMC police station.

The police have booked the accused under sections 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“So far, only four to five people have approached us. The number of complainants may increased in the next one week. A resident of Karajade and Panvel alone had invested ₹2.29 lakh with them,” another police officer said.