Khanna police freeze 31 bank accounts in Rs 122-cr Ponzi scam

Investigation by the Khanna police into the first-of-its-kind Ponzi scam amounting to Rs 122-crore in the name of organic farming has found that the accused had been committing the white collar crime in an organised way.

After the arrest of four persons — Bikramjit Singh (42), a resident of Gahlewal, Samrala, Amit Khullar (43) of Ferozepur, Harpreet Singh (25) of Gahlewal, Samrala, and Avtar Singh (47) of Khirnia, Samrala, — the Khanna police found that farmers of many northern states were victims of the scam.

Accused created fake organic firms

• Accused created fake organic companies having no physical offices
• Targeted farmers outside Punjab also
• Four arrested persons of fake companies spill the beans

Senior Superintendent of Police Khanna Jyoti Yadav said till yesterday, 21 banks accounts had been frozen by the police in which transactions of Rs 122 crore took place in seven months from January to July this year.

During further probe, the bank account count had reached 31 and the transaction amount reportedly increased by several crores.

“Whatever the police have so far unearthed could be the tip of the iceberg, but this scam targeting farmers has deep roots. Farmers of Punjab, UP, Haryana and other states were shown the dreams of multiple returns on investment in their companies. Initially, the accused even used to provide returns to the investors to gain their trust and when the latter pumped huge money into the firms, they never got the assured returns. Even fake agreements were being done with farmers,” revealed Yadav.

Now, more complaints have started pouring in against the accused from neighbouring states. A man in UP, along with like-minded farmers, invested Rs 2.5 crore and a farmer also persuaded 75 farmers for investment, but they got nothing in return.

Yadav said the accused had created several fake firms, namely The Generation of Farming, Generation of Farming, Hope of Farming, Randhawa Enterprises, The GAF Trading Enterprises, Kisan of Punjab Agro Nursery, Generation of Fitness Lab, The GAF Family Care Products, The GAF Milk Products, with fake office addresses of these companies given to the investors. Whenever any investor planned to visit the farmhouses or offices, the accused used to take them to the farms and offices of other people.

The accused even used to organise big events to promote their companies in which even senior politicians and prominent personalities could be seen as chief guests. One of the key accused Bikramjit Singh even shared multiple posts on his FB page in which a senior politician could be heard praising the accused for promoting organic farming.

As per the police, the accused had created nine fake companies related to organic farming with the office addresses in Samrala, but in reality those companies had no physical presence. The gang was quite active on digital space through which it used to lure innocent investors for multiple returns on the investments.