Nagpur.
In another significant move, a team of Economic Offences Wing of Nagpur Crime Branch led by Police Inspector Dane under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepali Masirkar raided the business establishments of three traders in the city on August 29, 2015.
The Traders include Avinash Bhute of Tajshree Honda, Pankaj Rathi and a third trader dealing in Steel.
The raids are said to be in connection with some transactions related to the controversial Wasankar Group.
Sources said that separate teams of the Crime Branch raided 11 establishments of the three businessmen. The operation continued for 10 hours. The sleuths of the Crime Branch seized ` 11 lakh and also took in their possession some documents relating to property worth crores. The operation has created panic among business circles.
It may be noted here that the Wasankar Group had floated some money minting schemes and had collected crores of rupees from many investors. As Wasankar is now in jail, cops are trying to probe his various investments which too runs in to crores.
Sources said that during the operation, cops have recovered some very incriminating documents. These documents reveal transactions worth crores of rupees being affected between these businessmen namely Avinash Bhute, director of Tajshree Group, builder Santdas Chawla and steel trader Pankaj Rathi and Wasankar. The operation was led by deputy commissioner of police Deepali Masirkar. A total of 8 police inspectors and 70 constables were involved in the operation.
The raids were carried out simultaneously at 10 places across the city including the Nandanvan, Deonagar, Sai Mandir square and Manish Nagar showrooms of Tajshree Group and his house, the residence of builder Santdas Chawla at Byramji Town, and the bungalow of Pankaj Rathi at Shivaji Nagar. However, no arrests were made so far.
Questionable transactions
Sources said that the raids began at 8 am and continued till 6 pm. Cops have seized ` 9.25 lakh from Avinash Bhute and ` 1,75 lakh from Chawla. Police said that ` 9.5 crores were transferred from the account of Bhute to that of Wasankar, while ` 50 lakh were transferred to the account of Chawla and ` 90 lakh were deposited in the account of Rathi.
The places raided
Search and seizure operations were carried out at Avinash Bhute’s residence at Nandanvan, Imperial Honda showroom at Wardha road, Tajshree Honda showroom Deonagar, Tajshree Yamaha Khamla, Tajshree Chevrolet, Wadi, Tajshree Yamaha, Nandanvan, Tajshree Auto, Hingna. Likewise, raids were also carried out at the posh bungalow of Pankaj Rathi at Shivajinagar and Sadoday Villa of Santdas Chawla at Byramji Town.
Had sold property to Wasankar
When contacted, Avinash Bhute said that he had sold some property to Wasankar for which he got ` 9.5 lakh. Otherwise, he does not have any connection with Wasankar and has nothing to do with his alleged investment schemes.
