Delhi businessman held for Rs8 crore fraud in Mumbai

A Delhi-based businessman has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police for allegedly cheating several investors to the tune of more than Rs8 crore.

The accused issued an initial public offer (IPO) of his company and later misappropriated the invested money for personal use. Vinaykumar Ramkumar Singhal, 50, was held in Delhi.

“It was learnt that the Rs8.03 crore, which were invested by the people, were misused by the company officials. The company shut its operations few years later and a case was registered by investors and Registrar of Companies (RoC) against the officials in Delhi and Mumbai,” said an EOW officer, requesting anonymity.

The police said that Singhal, along with others known as Vijay Jain, Sushil Agrawal and Kishanchand Gupta, had started a company Pashupati Cable Pvt Ltd in 1994. The company, which was dealing in import and export of wire cable conductors and rods, was registered with RoC in Mumbai.

“In 1996, the company issued an IPO and its over 80,000 shares were bought by the investors at a price of Rs10 per share. The company had made a list of benefits and promised huge returns to its investors on the purchase of its shares. However, few years later, it started cheating the investors,” said the official.

He added that the company could not fulfil any of its promises. On receipt of specific information, the EOW officials went to Delhi and arrested Singhal last week. He was remanded in police custody till February 15 by a local court.
“We have handed him over to the Delhi police, as the case was registered with them and the company was based in Delhi. The other three company officials are still wanted in this case,” the officer added.