Mumbai cops bust Rs100 crore co-op society scam

The Santa Cruz police on Wednesday arrested the promoter of a co-operative credit society for duping hundreds of investors of over Rs100 crore.

Radheshyam Gupta, chairman of the Dhanlaxmi Co-operative Credit Society, was arrested after 25 investors lodged a complaint against him with the Santa Cruz police. Similar offences were also registered against Gupta in other police stations, the police said.
According to the police, preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused had floated several financial schemes in the city.

The accused was running these schemes for the past seven years. In this scheme, the credit society had reportedly offered 14% interest rate on the fixed deposits, which is much higher than any other banking institutions. The investors alleged that they were initially offered the returns, but the credit society later delayed payments.

Suresh Nath, an investor, said: “I had invested Rs4 lakh in the credit society. But I never got it back. It was my hard earned money and I had deposited it with the credit society on the basis of trust.”

Suman Rao, a teacher who had invested Rs70,000 two years ago, said, “The credit society staffers kept on assuring me that I will get my money back , but the assurances were all false. I needed the money for my daughter’s marriage, but I could not get it when, I needed it the most.”

The police said whenever any investors threatened to go to the police or drag the credit society to the court, the accused would give false assurance.
The police said since a huge amount of money was involved in the scam, the case is likely to be transferred to the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the city police. The accused has been booked under various section of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and fraud. “Other accomplices of the accused will also be arrested in the case,” said Deputy Commissioner of police (zone IX) P R Dighavkar.