Franchise fraud: Kingpin on the run, wife and sister held

GREATER NOIDA: Three more persons were arrested in connection with the

franchise

racket that cheated investors after luring them to put in money for a supermarket chain.

Four persons had already been arrested after the

fraud

came to light on Saturday. The gang, police said, had formed several other companies to park their money. Amit Kumar, the SHO of Phase 3 police station, said Sunday’s arrests followed leads from the four who were nabbed the day before. “During investigation, we received an input on the suspects’ movement near Electronic City metro station. where a police check-post was set up. Our team spotted a Hyundai car in which three persons were sitting. They were arrested after we found company documents in their car,” the SHO added.

The suspects were identified as Upendra Kumar Verma, Neha Chauhan and Sonam Verma, all residents of Raj Nagar Extension in Ghaziabad. Among them, Neha is said to be the

wife

and Sonam the

sister

of the mastermind Rajesh Kumar, who is currently absconding.

On Saturday, four persons — Ankur Verma and Sunil Mistri of Indirapuram along with Sunil Kumar of Meerut and Sahibabad’s Ravindra Kumar — were arrested.

Kumar added that Upendra was made the director in the shell company by Rajesh that was allegedly created to handle all the fraud work. “Neha and his sister managed the finances there. We have produced them before a court, which sent them to judicial custody on Sunday,” the police officer said.

The franchise fraud is suspected to be around Rs 50 crore. Police claimed to have received more complaints from investors. “They have duped several people on the same pretext. They received Rs 10-30 lakh from each potential client in the name of getting them the franchise,” Kumar said, adding that the efforts to

arrest

the mastermind are underway. “We have inputs that Rajesh is in Delhi NCR. He will also be arrested soon,” the SHO said.


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