Kolhapur finance firm MD held on charge of duping investors

PUNE: The city police on Monday night arrested the managing director (MD) of a Kolhapur-based seed finance company and booked two of its woman directors and a constable on the charges of cheating and threatening depositors of lakhs of rupees by promising them attractive returns on investments.
A police team carried out simultaneous searches at the head office of Shubh Trade Beej India Private Limited in Kolhapur and another establishment near Navale bridge in Pune and seized Rs51.5 lakh cash, an SUV, computers, hardware articles and documents, besides arresting the company’s MD, Abhijit Sawant (40).
Nikhil Mirge (29), a builder from Nanded City, had lodged an FIR with the Sinhagad road police, accusing the company of duping him of Rs59.3 lakh. Four other investors have also come forward with their complaints. The police are estimating that the company, registered in Kolhapur nearly eight months ago, might have duped more than 500 investors. Apart from cheating, conspiracy and criminal intimidation, the police have invoked charges under the MPID Act, the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes Act and the Arms Act against the four persons booked so far.
The police constable booked in the case had become friends with Sawant during his posting at the Sinhagad road police station. He is now posted with the Khadki police station. The police added that the constable was accused of threatening Mirge with a pistol and implicating him in false cases when the builder had visited Sawant’s office in the city on January 20 to seek refund of his investment.
Mirge said in his FIR that after going through the company’s advertisement of schemes in various newspapers, websites and other platforms in July 2020, he had invested Rs63 lakh. Initially, the company gave him returns but later stopped paying.
When contacted, Mirge told TOI, “I would not like to comment on the development as of now.”
City police commissioner Amitabh Gupta, who had directed the simultaneous searches, said, “We have registered the offence of cheating and threatening against the company officials and the police constable. We will probe the case and the constable’s role will be explored further.”
Senior inspectors Devidas Gheware and Shankar Salgar and their team from Sinhagad Road police carried out the searches at four locations in Kolhapur and Pune. The police said Mirge continued to demand money from Sawant, who had sent some men to his residence and damaged his car to threaten him into silence.