HC raps police for lax probe in cheating scam

The state government had to face flak from the Bombay High Court on Wednesday for failing to act on a multi-crore scam in which, a tour agency operator — Vayudoot Domestic and International and Shree Samuh Company Private Ltd, duped small investors.

The state government had to face flak from the Bombay High Court on Wednesday for failing to act on a multi-crore scam in which, a tour agency operator — Vayudoot Domestic and International and Shree Samuh Company Private Ltd, duped small investors.

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"The scam is of around Rs 95 crore and you [government] just want to investigate six cases amounting to Rs 90 lakh?" said Justice A.M. Khanwilkar.

A division bench of Justice Khanwilkar and Justice U.D. Salvi has asked Additional Public Prosecutor, K.V. Saste, to have a meeting with the secretary of the home department, and inform the court Friday about their next step.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Meena Patil, wife of the accused Mohan, seeking that instead of transferring his custody to different police stations, all the cases of alleged cheating against her husband should be probed by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW).

Out of the six cases, only one case is being investigated by the EOW. The police said the cases have been investigated and a chargesheet has been filed hence there is no need to transfer the remaining five cases to the EOW. Mohan, director of the travel agency allegedly took money from people on the pretext of a 105-day tour. However, there never was a tour and Mohan allegedly never returned the money. Thirteen people had complained against Mohan.

They were from Mumbai, Pune and Pandharpur. EOW took Patil’s custody on February 4 and froze his accounts that had balance of around Rs 95 crore.

He is booked under the Indian Penal Code and under the Reserve Bank of India Act.