Gitesh.ShelkePune: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune city police has actedsuo motuunder the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act to file a case against two directors of a Karve Road investment firm accused of cheating over 2,000 depositors of Rs43.2 crore by promising 5% monthly returns on their investment since July 2022.The affected depositors have been approaching the police with their complaints for some time now. However, none of them was prepared to lodge a complaint.Deputy commissioner of police (EOW) Vivek Masal said, “We started an exercise in Jan to verify the matter. We realised that the two directors had accepted deposits from 2,000 individuals (number of deposit accounts). The total sum of these deposits is worth Rs43.2 crore. The duo had neither returned the deposits, nor the promised returns.”“The two directors accepted money from the depositors without securing a permission from the govt or from the Reserve Bank of India. It was a form of an unregulated deposit scheme and the police have powers to act against such schemes,” he said.The case has been registered with the Alankar police station.On Sunday afternoon, TOI visited the firm’s Karve Road office, which was filled with people and its employees. An investor told TOI: “I came to check my investment details and the firm officials have told me that nothing will happen to my investment. I trust them.”A firm official told TOI: “The complaint against us is fabricated.”Meanwhile, Masal said, “Considering the large number of depositors cheated by the firm and the amount involved, we decided to register the suo motu complaint. The affected persons had approached us with their complaints in Jan and Feb. Our teams have conducted searches at the firm’s office on Karve Road.”
