Chargesheet filed against six for Rs 60 lakh fraud

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, December 28

The Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch in Jammu has produced a 1,266-page chargesheet against six accused for Rs 60 lakh investment fraud.

Associated with Swarn Bhavya Gold Pvt Ltd, the accused include its managing director Balwinder Kumar, a resident of Kaithal. The others are Sushil Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Deepak Singh of Haryana, Saphali Singh of New Delhi and Manveer Singh of Punjab.

Modus operandi

• Associated with Swarn Bhavya Gold Pvt Ltd, the accused lured J&K residents into investing their money, promising bonus income after every 15 days and more income on creating a network of depositors.
• Initially, the investors got their bonus in time. Gradually, the company stopped making them payments.

They were booked under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC in Jammu. The accused, after allegedly hatching a criminal conspiracy, induced the complainants and others to invest money in the said company with a promise of providing bonus income after every 15 days on their deposits and more bonus income on creating a network of depositors. The investors were ultimately defrauded, the complainants alleged.

The case stems from a written complaint lodged with the Crime Branch, Jammu, by Mohammad Younis of Pampore, Asrar Ahmed of Srinagar, Ayaz Ahmed of Poonch and Mushtaq Dar of Rajouri, alleging that Balwinder Kumar, along with others, came to J&K in October 2017 and launched the programmes by conducting seminars in different hotels in J&K to motivate people to invest their money.

People were assured that the company was genuine and registered with the RBI. The said company collected a huge amount from J&K within three months. Initially, the complainants and others got their bonus well in time but later their payments were stopped and they were defrauded eventually.

On receipt of the complaint, a preliminary verification was conducted and during the course of inquiry, the allegations of cheating and fraud were prima-facie substantiated, leading to the registration of a formal case under the relevant sections of law for an in-depth probe.

During the course of investigation, all material evidence was gathered besides statements of the complainants and witnesses were recorded and the offences were established against the accused. “During the probe, well-coordinated efforts were made by teams of Crime Branch, Jammu, to arrest the accused across various states as they remained elusive for a long period of time,” an official said.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.

#Jammu