The police registered the first FIR against the alleged Ponzi operator and sealed two of his offices.
The Vastrapur police on Sunday registered the first FIR against alleged Ponzi operator, Vinod Datta, and sealed his two offices on Drive-in Road.
Vastrapur police inspector SB Trivedi said that, a few days back, he was approached by 64 people who alleged that they had been cheated by Datta. On Sunday, one of the victims named, Hamilton, finally lodged an FIR in which the 63 others are mentioned as victims, the police inspector.
According to Trivedi, these men had together lost over Rs1.6 crore that they had invested in Datta's money-multiplying schemes. Most of the 64 complainants are from Khokhra area of Ahmedabad and are said to be retired people or daily-wage earners.
Sources, however, said that Datta is believed to have disappeared with anywhere between Rs100 crore and Rs 200 crore acquired through his fraudulent schemes.
But Trivedi said that, based on the victims' accounts, Datta had cheated the investors of at least Rs70 crore. The police inspector added that this amount is bound to increase as there are many other victims who are yet to approach the police.
“So far, only the small investors who had put in small amounts in Datta's money-multiplying schemes have approached the police. But there are some big investors, too, who are consulting lawyers to avoid attracting the attention of the income tax department,” Trivedi said.
Datta, a resident of La Habitat society in Thaltej, was running his schemes from his two main offices, namely, Ablaze Fincap Services and Ablaze Villa Pvt Ltd, both of which are located at Shilp Esquare on Drive-in Road. Police said he was active in the market for the last 3-4 years and that, prima facie, it appeared that hundreds of people had invested money in his schemes. Datta himself has disappeared from the city.
Police said that apart from poor people residing in old Ahmedabad, Datta had attracted investments from hundreds of investors from affluent families as well.
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