Vadodara: Sahara dupes investors, FIR registered against owners

Three regional managers of Sahara Q Shop Unique Product Range Limited and Company’s owners, Subrata Roy and Swapna Roy have been booked by the Crime Branch of Vadodara police on Sunday. They were booked for allegedly conning people of Rs 57 lakh by using a Ponzi scheme.

Acting on the complaint filed by the investors, the Crime Branch arrested Surendrasinh Solanki (42), Balwantsinh Rajput (52) and Zuber Patel (42), the regional managers for the company.

It is to be noted that, at least 19 persons have been booked under sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120 (B) (Criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), said police.

According to the police, people had invested in the company in 2011 after they were assured saying that their amount will be doubled in five years. But after five years, instead of returning the money, the company allegedly began convincing the investors to transfer the money to another company of the Sahara Group for more benefits.

According to the complainant, Hitesh Jagnarayan, his father had made multiple investments in Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIRECL) in 2009, and the company had promised a return at 12 per cent interest.

In 2010, however, the SEBI found irregularities in the company following which the Supreme Court ordered that either the company should return all the amount invested by the investors at 15 per cent interest rate within three months or the entire invested money would directly go to SEBI.

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“So far, 84 more people have come forward alleging that they have been conned by the company, and we are expecting the numbers to increase. The total amount invested by these people was Rs 57,55,640. Apart from those arrested, there are six others from Vadodara who are on the run and we have formed teams to arrest them. We have also dispatched teams to Lucknow, the company’s nodal office, to nab the owners and take the investigation further,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Vadodara Crime Branch) Jaydeepsinh Jadeja told The Indian Express.

According to the complainant, the company then launched a new firm, Sahara Q Shop Unique Product Range Limited, and set up 11 regional offices in Vadodara alone. Agents and managers from these offices began approaching the same investors again and convinced them to transfer their money invested in SIRECL to Sahara Q Shop Unique Product Range Limited. The complainant alleged that the agents and managers promised that the amount would be returned with 12 per cent interest within one and a half years and doubled in five years.

The complainant told The Indian Express that he transferred all the invested money to the newly set up company expecting the amount to be doubled in the next five years. However, after five years, he said, when he approached the company for his returns, they delayed it by another year. This year, when he approached them again, the agent told him that due to an ongoing court case, the money cannot be withdrawn but can be transferred again to another company. The police, however, are yet to verify and investigate the allegations.

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