Mumbai: The city economic offences wing (EOW) has begun a probe into a cheating case in which 58 investors allegedly lost over Rs 10.3 crore. The accused allegedly lured the victims with a monthly 2% return on their investments. The police indicated that the amount may go up when more complainants come forward.The case was first registered on March 30 at the MHB police station in Borivli and transferred to the EOW. Police said that Manish Shah, a Malad resident, and his family members invested a total of around Rs 3 crore. “While they got Rs 1.1 crore in returns, the accused did not return the remaining amount,” said an officer. Police booked two proprietary firms—Thanawala Wealth Management and Thanawala Investment, their proprietors and two other persons who introduced the scheme to the investors.The accused persons ran different schemes during 2019 and March 2026. “In one scheme they assured 2% monthly guaranteed returns on investments. In another scheme, they assured to buy pre-IPO shares with investors’ money saying that later they could make profit when the prices rose, and the third scheme was about systematic investment plan (SIP),” said an officer. Police said that some people who did not get shares in Demat accounts, consistently followed for a refund and got their money back, but some neither got their share nor money back.A team led by joint CP Nishith Mishra, DCP Sangram Nishandar, senior inspector Dattatray Bakare and inspector Sandesh Manjrekar is probing the case. The accused have been booked under various sections of the BNS, IT act, Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors’ (MPID) act and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) act, 1978. “These firms were not SEBI registered and collected deposits from the public,” said the EOW officer.
