Imtsons managing director held after investors lodge FIR

Imtiaz Saiyed, managing director of the firm, Imtsons Investment Pvt Ltd, was arrested by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) late on Friday night after eight investors lodged a complaint. The investors have accused the firm of cheating them of Rs10 lakh. Sayied’s firm is believed to have collected Rs85 crore from different investors through Ponzi schemes.

ACP (crime branch) Mayur Chavda said that the first person to lodge a complainant, 65-year-old Anwar Qureshi, had stated that he had invested Rs70,000 in one of Imtsons’ schemes in the hope of getting 15% of that amount every month. But after getting the promised amount for three months, he had received no money from the firm. Qureshi said he had invested with the firm because he needed the money for medical treatment.

Chavda said that after investors lodged the complaint, the DCB had conducted a raid at Imtsons office in Ellisbridge and seized important documents.

Sources said that earlier in the day, Saiyed was detained by DCB sleuths after investors called for police help when Saiyed’s men assaulted them. Many of the firms’ 12,000 investors, whose cheques promised by the firm were due on Friday, had thronged the office. Sources said the investors not only did not get any cheques, they were not allowed to meet Saiyed either.

The sources said Saiyed’s men warned investors against filing a police complaint, and threatened them that other investors would then attack and ransack their houses. This angered the investors present in Saiyed’s office and they manhandled his men.

Sensing danger, Saiyed called other men from Raikhad and Sarkhej. They allegedly thrashed the angry investors, who immediately informed the police, sources said. DCB police inspector Bharat Patel and his team arrived at around 12:30 pm and picked up Saiyed from his office in Sakar-VII building at Ellisbridge and took him to the DCB office in Gaekwad Haveli for questioning. Saiyed was later arrested when Anwar Qureshi and seven others filed a police complaint accusing him of cheating them of Rs10 lakh.