Woman who masterminded multi-crore scam held

VADODARA: The woman, who has been accused of duping over 28,000 citizens, was finally arrested by the city police on Thursday night. Najma Pathan was on the run since last month after dozens of citizens registered police complaints against her at Sayajigunj police station. Pathan was accused of promising bulk quantity of edible oil and rice to people for paltry amounts.She used the multi-level marketing scheme to lure customers and the scam was touted to be worth over Rs two crore.
The cops produced her before a local court on Friday that remanded her in police custody for five days. "Najma had applied for anticipatory bail but it got rejected. We have arrested her and our focus is on recovering the money that she had taken from people," said Sayajigunj police inspector H J Kin.
Her children Taijam Pathan and Lubna Pathan have got anticipatory bail, said police officials. Investigating officials said that Najma accepted that she took money from thousands of people. "But, she is saying that she has paid all the money to the traders from whom she bought the oil and rice stock. She says that she is not left with any money. We have checked her bank accounts and it has very little deposits," said a police official.
"Najma is very smart and we are sure that she must have hidden the money somewhere. We will try our best to trace the money as it belongs to thousands of poor citizens," Kin added.
Najma promised large quantity of edible oil and rice for low prices to lure agents and customers into her trap. She started an office under the name of N J Enterprise at Sainath Avenue in Fatehgunj on November 28 last year. She used to promise 15 kgs of edible oil for Rs 650 and 25 kg of rice for 750 along with toor dal. Najma supplied the stock of essential commodities regularly but when her customer base grew, she started dilly-dallying. And, in April this year she locked up her office and disappeared.