Nagpur: Yet another big money fraud is in the making as the authorities have chosen to pay no heed towards a dubious gold investment scheme being run by a small time jeweler in Jaripatka area of Nagpur. The unscrupulous jeweler identified as Mahesh Pahuman Sheshwani along with his son identified as Rohit Mahesh Sheshwani are luring gullible investors in their murky affairs with trap of great benefits at the end of the scheme.
According to his scheme, a customer has to deposit Rs 3500 for 42 months or 3.5 years and every month there will be lucky draw. If the person is lucky enough he would not have to pay the remaining installments, the scheme card issued by Rohit said. Besides, various other rules and regulations were also printed on the card, the copy of which is in possession of Nagpur Today.
Sources said the jeweler has targeted the women folk and residents of Jaripatka area. “Since he knows, that women are the soft targets and would not even report the matter to their husbands if the fraudster does not live up to his claims for the fear of getting scolding from their husbands,” added a source.
Kin committed Rs 2 cr fraud
Both the father and the son run two companies in one shop called Payal Jewellers and Rohit Enterprises. The brother-in-law (Jeejaji) of Mahesh Pahuman Sheshwani identified as Anil Kumar Manoharlal Rupwani a resident of Kapil Nagar too had committed a similar crime in Jaripatka area itself. He has absconded from Nagpur after taking Rs 2 crores from innocent residents of Jaripatka. A complaint of the fraud was lodged in Jaripatka Police Station too. The brother-in-law of the absconding accused Anil Kumar Pupwani identified as Sunil Rameshlal Waleha too had committed a similar fraud and and when people started demanding their money back, had committed suicide too. Even after all this, the people are still falling prey to this unscrupulous jeweler makes no sense.
When Nagpur Today contacted Rohit Seshwani, he denied running any such scheme but sources and the documents available with Nagpur Today reveal all about his murky business.
Will book the offenders, let complaint come : DCP
While speaking to Nagpur Today, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences and Cyber Crime) Deepali Masirkar said that if a complaint is lodged in a police station, they will certainly investigate the case and book the offenders. She has assured of preventive action to prevent these unscrupulous elements from committing a crime where many innocent people lose their hard earned money. However, sources believe that the police should take suo moto action against the fraudsters before it gets late.
Violation of ban
It may be mentioned here Central Government had banned the gold schemes in many states. These gold schemes are run by jewelers under which a customer is lured into becoming a member of the Gold Saving Scheme. The customer had to deposit Rs 1000/- or Rs 2000/- according to his or her capacity every month. The Jeweller assures the customers that after the customers deposit the amount for 11 months the jeweler pays the 12th month amount and then the customer can buy a gold ornament for the deposited amount.
A variant in the scheme was that gold worth the amount deposited was credited into the account of the customers every month and at the end of the year after the Jeweller’s contribution, the customer gets to buy an ornament equaling to the total amount of gold credited into their account.
Another variant in this scheme is the one that works similar to the Chit-Fund scheme. The number of member collect money and a draw is taken out at the end of the month and one person gets to buy gold ornaments with the money accumulated from the entire collection. However, though he has to pay for the rest of the period, he or she does not get to win the lottery.
While many big Jewellers selling Gold and Silver ornaments ran a clean operation, many small time jewelers had looted the customers and had not lived up to their promises. This led the Government to intervene and stop these gold schemes.
– By Samuel Gunaskeharan
