‘187 shell firms formed to divert depositors’ money’

JAIPUR: The Special Operations Group (

SOG

) of the Rajasthan police on Saturday arrested 11 office-bearers of the Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society for allegedly siphoning off over Rs 8,000 crore of investor money into multiple shell companies in a direct violation of the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act.


DG (SOG) Bhupendra Singh said that following a preliminary investigation into the alleged scam, the SOG had filed an FIR in December 2018 after a series of malpractices had come to the fore.

“The society was earlier registered in

Sirohi district

before it was extended to Gujarat as a multi-state society. Since 2008, about Rs 8,000 crore have been invested in the society. Almost 75% of the depositors are from Rajasthan. Of the society’s 806 branches, 309 are in Rajasthan,” Singh said here at a press meet.

The sleuths said that the directors of the society had set up as many as 187 shell companies to divert the money of depositors.

“All these shell companies operated from a single room located in Gurugram. The accused channelled money into the dummy companies in the form of multiple fraudulent loans. The directors of these dubious companies turned out to be relatives or friends of the accused,” the official said.

According to DIG (SOG) Nitin Deep Blaggan, the societies are not allowed to grant loans to companies, yet, the rules were flouted to pour money into several of these highly dubious companies, which in turn invested it in gold and real estate.

“These loans were highly insecure as they were given without any pledge or mortgage. Also, no efforts for recovery of loans were made by the society,” Blaggan told TOI. SOG officials said that the shell companies owe over Rs 14,000 crore to the society. Many investors have been left in the lurch as the society does not have any assets to pay its depositors.

“Most of the investors are yet to be paid by the society. The society’s cumulative liability has now gone up to Rs 14,000 crore. Two of the society’s main officials, Mukesh Modi and Rahul Modi, were arrested by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in New Delhi last year,” Singh said.

Initial investigation indicates how investors’ money was diverted as well as several anomalies in the society’s record books, including lack of auditing. A complex labyrinth of transactions was used by the accused to dupe investors. “The case is still at a very early stage. The scam could run into several cores,” said an official.

Police have identified the arrested accused as Virendra Modi, Kamlesh Choudhary, Ishwar Singh Sindhal, Priyanka Modi, Vaibhav Lodha, Sameer Modi, Rohit Modi, Bharat Modi, Bharat Das Vaishnav, Lalita

Rajpurohit

and Vivek Purohit. They were arrested from Sirohi, Mumbai, Gujarat and Jaipur.


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