On May 10, EOW officials had arrested Jignesh Rathod and Shafiq Shaikh—directors of Aurum—for allegedly cheating nearly 3,000
investors of crores of rupees.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Crime Branch, which is investigating the multi-crore investors’ scam involving Aurum Realty Limited, has come across a rather unique modus operandi. The alleged masterminds used dummy directors to dupe investors, thereby safeguarding themselves legally, police said.
On May 10, EOW officials had arrested Jignesh Rathod and Shafiq Shaikh—directors of Aurum—for allegedly cheating nearly 3,000
investors of crores of rupees.
“Jignesh lives in a MHADA chawl in Borivli and has neither a strong educational nor monetary background. Similarly, Shaikh, too, is a resident of some Borivli slums. During interrogation, they said they were approached by Sandeep and Manoj Shukla and were asked to become directors of their firms,” said an EOW official, requesting anonymity.
He added that the duo agreed as the Shukla brothers had promised them a huge salary. “The two also told us that they were made to sit at the company’s office in Lower Parel dressed in blazers and expensive clothes and deal with customers,” the officer said.
Interestingly, the Shukla brothers had smartly safeguarded themselves in the legal purview, as letters issued by the company had the names of Rathod and Shaikh. Even the agreement and cheques given by the company to investors had their signatures.
“This way, the Shukla brothers always remained behind the scenes, but they happily used the money generated by the company,” the officer said.
Through newspapers advertisements in June last year, Aurum had attracted the attention of several investors, as their scheme was very lucrative. They said they were developing projects in Karjat and Kalyan and would be giving high returns on investments. Initially, they even gave payments to their customers, but some months ago, when they started defaulting, a complaint
was filed by investors with EOW.
“We found out that the company has offices in Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad with different names and directors. We are investigating whether they were also used for cheating by the Shukla brothers,” said an officer.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}