2 persons held for cheating investors of Rs 27 cr in Mumbai

The CEO and vice president of an investment firm have been arrested for allegedly cheating several people of over Rs 27 crore, police said Saturday.

The firm had got people to invest in its schemes after promising them a monthly interest of 10 per cent, police added.

Sumit Kailash Sharma alias Jahan Khan (30) and Sumail Khan alias Sameer (34) of investment firm Quirky Technology were arrested by Saki Naka police Friday while a hunt was on for Rahul Saxena who they claimed was the mastermind of the racket.

Sharma is the vice president and Khan is the chief executive officer of the firm, police said.

"The company had promised investors 10 per cent interest every month starting March last year. This attracted hundreds of investors, some of whom got this interest payout till July this year," an official said.

However, the interest payments stopped abruptly and queries by investors went unanswered, following which some of them approached police, he said.

"Investigations have revealed that between March last year and July 2018, the accused opened 14,083 bank accounts in the name of 3,620 investors and transacted Rs 27.50 crore online," the official said.

"The office of the company has been sealed and six bank accounts belonging to the company and its partners have been frozen," said Navinchandra Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone X.

A total of 488 investors have approached police and a sum of Rs 15 crore is yet to be recovered from the accused, an official said.

He added that a case under relevant sections of the IPC and Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors had been registered and further probe was underway.