07 June,2017 08:00 AM IST | Pune | Chaitraly Deshmukh
Pune police arrest four accused, including three Mumbai residents, for allegedly duping 25,000 people across India of crores under pretext of investing in PM Narendra Modi's 'Make In India' mission
Photo imaging/Uday Mohite
Pune: Three Mumbaikars are among four accused, who have been arrested by the Pune police's cyber cell, for allegedly duping over 25,000 people across India of crores of rupees under the pretext of investing in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make In India mission. The arrested have been identified as Rupesh Arvind Katkar (37), Sandeep Lokhande (44) and Parshuram Tambe (48) from Mumbai, and Bhavin Joshi (40) from Gujarat.
According to the police, the issue came to light after the Pune-based complainant and his friend, who had invested with the fraudulent company, filed a complaint with the police. The company was launched by Katkar along with Tambe and Lokhande.
"The trio, all under Class X pass, started a fake company, which claimed to support the PM's Make in India programme," said Sudhir Hiremath, deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell). "They even launched websites like www.makeinindia.rocks and www.rocksfamilyglobal.com, and got tech support from Joshi, who is a software professional, to make their company look legitimate," Hiremath added.
The company reached out to people to invest Rs 7,000 in their 'multi-level business plan', with the assurance that they'd receive 5 per cent more than what they had invested in a week, and 150 per cent of the cash by the end of the month. "They also held programmes in various cities to encourage investors to buy into the projects," Hiremath said.
During the first two months, all investors got good returns as promised. This encouraged them to invest more. However, before they realised, the trio had transferred all the money into their personal accounts, and shut down the firm.
