Ayushi, wife of ‘like’ Ponzi kingpin, arrested in Pune

Noida: Ten months after the arrest of

Anubhav Mittal

, the alleged mastermind of one of the biggest

Ponzi

frauds seen in recent years, his wife

Ayushi

landed in the police net on Monday.

Ayushi is a co-accused in the case because she was a director of Ablaze Info Solutions, the company Mittal floated to run his scheme ‘Social Trade’ that promised returns in exchange for liking various pages. At the time of the arrest of Mittal in February this year in Noida, the special task force of UP Police had estimated the scale of the scam at Rs 3,700 crore.

“Ayushi was arrested in Pune on Monday night and taken to a local court on Tuesday. A transit remand is being prepared. She will be brought to Noida for further interrogation,” Abhishek Singh, SSP of STF, Lucknow told TOI. While STF officers did not reveal where Ayushi had been hiding, there were reports that she had relatives in Maharashtra.

Ayushi, a resident of Pilukhwa in Hapur, was arrested from Sai Ganga society in Kondhwa in Pune. According to the STF, Ayushi has told investigators the company was registered on September 2, 2010 at the address 878/8 New Building, SP Mukherjee Marj, Chandni Chowk. Anubhav and his father Sunil Mittal were appointed directors. “She said that after her marriage to Anubhav, she was appointed as a director in the company in place of her father-in-law on March 3, 2016,” an officer said.

At least five FIRs have been lodged against Ayushi under various IPC sections, including cheating, and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978 in police stations of Noida and Ghaziabad.

On February 1 this year, STF had Mittal, Ablaze CEO Sreedhar Prasad and its technical head Mahesh Dayal. Subsequently, a relationship manager with Yes Bank, Atul Kumar Mishra, was arrested on February 8 after which the company’s ‘core beneficiaries’ Pramod Kumar Solanki and Pramod Kumar Vimal were arrested on May 17. Sunil Mittal was arrested on April 8.