Ahmedabad: Police have unearthed transactions of Rs 175 crore in two bank accounts in Gujarat of a ponzi scheme operator, who is accused of defrauding people by offering as high as 36 per cent annual return on deposits, said an official on Wednesday.
As per “unverified inputs”, the entire scam of duping people through a ponzi scheme runs into Rs 6,000 crore, said Additional Director General of Police, CID Crime and Railways, Rajkumar Pandian.
The main accused of the scam, Bhupendrasinh Zala, a resident of Himatnagar taluka in Sabarkantha district, went underground after the CID started raiding his locations, he said.
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An agent working for his company has been arrested, the officer informed, adding police seized Rs 16.37 lakh in cash, three laptops, 11 mobile phones, rubber stamps, documents and PAN cards during raids on premises linked to Zala.
“As per an anonymous application received by the CID, Zala has collected deposits worth Rs 6,000 crore by offering lucrative returns, which go up to 3 per cent per month or 36 per cent in a year. The exact amount of this ponzi scam will emerge after a detailed investigation,” Pandian told reporters.
Based on the inputs received through the application, the CID put Zala’s activities under surveillance a month ago and learnt he had floated a firm, BZ Financial Services, and opened its offices in north Gujarat, Gandhinagar and Vadodara to collect deposits from unsuspecting people, he said.
“Zala used to identify himself as the CEO of BZ Group and would collect deposits from people in an illegal manner as he never had any approval from the RBI or any other authority. To win people’s trust, he used to return the deposits with promised returns initially. He had appointed agents on commission basis to lure people,” said the IPS officer.
The CID formed multiple teams and raided six of Zala’s rented offices in Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Arvalli, Mehsana and Vadodara district during the last two days and arrested one of his agents, Anant Darji, said Pandian.
An FIR is being registered against Zala and his accomplices for cheating people, he said.
“Zala has gone underground and switched off his mobile phones. We found transactions of Rs 175 crore in two of his bank accounts. We have learnt he started this illegal business four years ago,” said the senior IPS officer, adding efforts were on to nab him.
