Bike bot owner accused of Rs 1,300 cr fraud surrenders in court

The owner of a motorcycle taxi firm "Bike Bot", which allegedly duped over two lakh investors of more than Rs 1,300 crore through a ponzi scheme, Friday surrendered before a court here, police said.

The investors, mostly retired and serving government officials, invested Rs 62,100 each in the "multi-level marketing" scheme that promised doubling the amount within a year.

Sanjay Bhati and other top officials of Garvit Innovative Promoters Limited (GIPL) were wanted for cheating and nearly three dozen FIRs were registered against the firm in Greater Noida's Dadri police station, a senior official said.

"He (Bhati) surrendered in the district court in Surajpur this afternoon and has been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Buddh Nagar, Vaibhav Krishna, said.

"We will soon be appealing to the court for Bhati's police custody. He is being booked under the Gangster Act and the properties of his and other company officials will be attached," he told PTI.

The Noida Economic Offences Wing (NEOW) had on Thursday arrested Bhati's partner and Bike Bot's franchise head Vijaypal Kasana from a hospital in Meerut, officials said.

The company's bike taxis have been operating in districts like Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur and Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh, while its network is also active in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, they said.

"The company has nearly 7,000 bikes out of which 2,000 are registered and the rest unregistered. About 2.25 lakh people have invested Rs 62,100 each in the ponzi scheme, the total amounting to over Rs 1,300 crore.We have constituted a special investigation team (SIT), while the NEOW is also probing the matter, the SSP said.

Nine to ten more partners of the company are absconding and will be apprehended soon, he added.

GIPL, located in Greater Noida, had come out with the "multi-level marketing scheme Bike Bot", the SSP said.

They sought Rs 62,100 as investment on a motorcycle taxi and assured monthly returns, besides doubling the investment amount in one year, Krishna told reporters.

He added that the company has duped several investors from various states.

"The company had used internet, social media and pamphlets, and motivators, who would spread the word about the scheme and encourage gullible people to invest in it.

"The investors would be further assured some extra bonus if they connected others to the scheme," police said.

There are 33 cases registered against "Bike Bot" under the Indian Penal Code sections 420 (fraud), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) and related offences, they said.