Two More Accused Surrender: Gilts Scam

The head count of accused arrested by the police in the multi-crore government securities scam went up to four on Monday as two more chiefs of broking firms, Mahindra Radheshyam Agrawal and Shivprasad Poddar, both from Kolkata, surrendered before the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) here.

The CID registered the time of surrender as 11 am. While Agrawal, 37, is chief executive officer of Century Dealers, Poddar, 48, heads Indramani Services.

Both the firms are registered at Kolkata. Believed to be relatives of one of the key accused in the scam, Sanjay Agarwal, their firms had collectively received Rs 27 crore from the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank Ltd (NDCCB) for investment in government securities.

The securities never reached the NDCCB and when the scam broke, former chairman of the Bank, Sunil Kedar named these two firms along with three others as having defaulted in their remittances.

The other firms listed by Kedar were Home Trade, Giltedge and Syndicate Management Services. Sanjay Agrawal, chief executive officer of Home Trade, surrendered before a magistrate here on May 11 while Ketan Sheth of Giltedge did so before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Mumbai on May 15.

The police produced Radheshyam Agrawal and Shivprasad Poddar before a court here on Monday evening. They were remanded to police custody till July 5.

A team of CID sleuths is expected to leave for Ahmedabad to question chief of Syndicate Management Services Amit Verma soon.