Maharashtra government sanctions funds of Rs1 crore to spread awareness among citizens about economic crimes

In order to spread awareness among citizens about growing menace of economic frauds, the Maharashtra government has given a fund of Rs1 crore, of which Rs40 lakh will be provided to Mumbai police' Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Last year, the EOW had registered economic frauds involving Rs1,044 crore.According to a senior officer, in coming times more and more cities from the state would become smart cities and with that economic crimes would also increase. "Nowadays crimes such as money doubling schemes have become a huge menace wherein the investors are duped. Such schemes are publicised through word of mouth and agents. Once the company gets good investment, they close down their operations and go into hiding," said a senior police officer.He added, the government had decided to spread awareness among citizens about such Ponzi schemes. "The government has recently granted a fund of Rs1 crore to the state police to spread awareness among citizens against such economic crimes, out of which Rs40 lakh will be dedicated to the EOW, Mumbai. From the said money, we would spread awareness through social media, prepare small awareness videos and send across text messages to citizens," the officer said.The police believe that through awareness economic crime cases would see a diminishing trends.Last year, Mumbai police registered over 100 economic offences cases involving money worth Rs1,044 crore. Of the registered cases, 89 were related to property, nine were related to banking frauds, 22 cases were related to housing frauds and two job racket frauds.