Mumbai: Two businessmen held for duping 166 investors of Rs 30 crore

MUMBAI: Economics Offences Wing (EOW) on Friday arrested two Khar businessmen for allegedly cheating 166 investors of around Rs 30 crore. Abhishek Agicha (30) and his cousin Gautam (31) were remanded to police custody till August 29.
An officer said that the duo floated investment schemes, collected deposits from investors in 2015 and promised 18% annual returns.Investigators said they were proprietors of Greenwood and Woodtech. “They paid returns for around two years and suddenly stopped paying profits/returns, following which a complaint was lodged against them in January. We found the financial trail and arrested the duo,” said a police source.
The complainant, a textile businessman, told the police that he learnt about the schemes and was told that the cousins were about to start a factory abroad. He invested Rs 2.3 crore in Greenwood in 2016 and got returns for only one year. Police are probing where the funds, collected from investors, were diverted to or if they were used. The accused have been booked under IPC for cheating and under sections of Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act.
Aditya Pratap, advocate for complainant Kamal Bhatia, said, “The court has rightly rejected their bail applications as they were conducting an illegal deposit-raising operation on behalf of a private company, which is prohibited under section 73 of Companies Act. Custodial interrogation is necessary to uncover the entire money trail and beneficiaries involved.” Pratap added that they raised deposits, and fraudulently transferred the money to Jawahar Saw Mills Pvt Ltd.