Noida ponzi scheme: Father, wife of Anubhav Mittal named as accused

The wife and father of Anubhav Mittal, accused of running a Ponzi scheme through his firm Ablaze Info Solution, have been named as accused in the case.

Officials of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case said that the two have been officially declared as accused in the case and non-bailable warrants against them will be obtained soon.

Anubhav Mittal, 26, is now behind bars, accused of swindling Rs 3,700 crores from 7 lakh-odd people through one of the biggest internet scams in recent times.

On February 2, the Uttar Pradesh special task force (UP-STF) had arrested Anubhav Mittal, company’s chief executive officer, Shreedhar Prasad, and technical head, Mahesh Kumar.

Later, the STF also arrested Atul Mishra, a relationship manager with Yes Bank, for allegedly providing Mittal prior information about any possible raid or investigation based on reports of suspicious transactions.

“In the ongoing investigation, Mittal’s wife, Ayushi, who is company’s current director, and his father, Sunil, who was a former director, have been officially declared as accused in the case documents. Teams are searching for them. If they are arrested, their names may figure in the first chargesheet, else we will file supplementary chargesheets. Search for them was conducted in Ghaziabad, Hapur and Noida,” Rajiv Narayan Mishra, additional superintendent of police, UP-STF, said.

Read | Noida scam: If he got rich, would we be running shops, asks Anubhav’s granddad

Mittal’s father owns a small electrical goods shop in Kishanganj Mohalla of Pilkhuwa town, while his grandfather, Ved Prakash, runs a grocery store. Mittal married Ayushi in December 2015 and shifted out of Pilkhuwa.

The Enforcement Directorate last week had attached Anubhav Mittal’s assets worth around Rs 600 crore.

The attached assets include balances in 14 bank accounts totalling Rs 543.81 crore, a fixed deposit of about Rs 52 crore with a Hyderabad-based mobile Payment Gateway company named Paynear Solutions, and a villa at Jaypee Greens in Greater Noida, whose estimated worth is put at Rs 3.6 crore.

The multilevel marketing and Ponzi schemes that were allegedly run through firms such as Ablaze Info Solutions private Ltd, Social Trade India Pvt Ltd, 3W Digital Pvt Ltd and Intmaart India Pvt Ltd were the initiatives of Anubhav, Ayushi and others, the police said.

Supplementary chargesheets in the case are expected to be filed for nearly 15 persons from the ‘core group’ that pocketed ‘large amounts’ through the companies by setting up a chain of customers. These are suspected to be part of the think tank behind the business.

“The think-tank propagated the business and formed a major chain (of customers). People were motivated through presentations and events and the think tank became major beneficiaries. Such activities are banned. The names of these people will figure in the supplementary chargesheets,” Mishra said.

Read | Who is Anubhav Mittal, the prime accused in Rs 3,700-cr online trading scam

Mittal had claimed that the company — Ablaze Info Solution Pvt Ltd — was used to promote specific social media pages and increase internet traffic to specific pages.

The police said that he lured investors with weekly returns and promise of bonus on bringing in more investors. The investigators said that the accused promoted four systematic investment plans that offered various incentives upon investment.

However, the SIT has, so far, found no other source of revenue besides the subscription charges paid by members. The membership fee was circulated for paying commissions and meeting out the establishment expenses.

A probe by Enforcement Directorate is also on in the case after it registered a case of money laundering on the basis of the FIR registered by the UP-STF.

First Published: Apr 04, 2017 09:37 IST