Mumbai: Jewellery store owners arrested for cheating customers

The owners of a jewellery store in suburban Ghatkopar have been arrested by Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for allegedly cheating customers to the tune of Rs 300 crore, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused, Jayesh Rasiklal Shah (55) and Nilesh Rasiklal Shah (53)-both brothers, ran the 'Rasiklal Sankalchand' jewellery showroom here and allegedly promised good returns to customers on their deposit schemes, he said.

Several people subsequently invested large amounts of money in the Ponzi schemes over several months, the EOW official said.

However, on October 28, the customers found the store shut and realised they were cheated.

The customers then filed a complaint with Pant Nagar police and the case was later taken over by the EOW.

While conducting probe in the case, the EOW arrested the two accused on Monday, the official said.

Some of the jewellery store employees last week complained to the labour commissioner that they had not been paid for six months, he said.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating) and406 (criminal breach of trust), and provisions of the Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors (MPID) Act, the official said.

The MPID Act empowers the probing agency to attach and liquidate the assets of the accused to compensate the victims for their losses, he added.