Three held for double-money con in Mumbai

Police have arrested three people from Malad for allegedly duping several people  in a double-your-money scheme floated a few months ago. The accused, apprehended last week, lured investors with a promise to double their investments in just 19 days.

An officer of the Malad police station said Rajiv Singh, 24, the main accused, is from Uttar Pradesh. Singh, who came to the city five years ago, promoted the investment scheme with the help of accomplices Karim Makhnojia, 58, and Lunkush Dwivedi, 20. Earlier, their office was in Bandra, which they later shifted to Kandivli and then to Malad this month.

The accused, who also promoted their plans through a website, had floated several schemes and the minimum investment amount was Rs5,000. Also, they had promised the investment agents that if they brought more investors, they would be rewarded with gifts such as cars and flats.

The police said that within a few days of opening their office in Malad, the trio had got investments up to Rs35 lakh. The data in the computers seized by the police from their office have revealed that hundreds of people — from the city as well as other states — had made investments in the schemes floated by them.

“The total investment in their schemes could be in crores, as many other investors have approached us,” a senior officer from the Malad police station said, adding that bank accounts of the accused have been frozen.