IIM-alumni booked for fraud after duping two former classmates of Rs. 8.5 crore

He and his wife Fawzia Vipparthi, allegedly accepted money from the two victims, promising them high returns by investing their money in the share market. But they failed to fulfil their promises.

There was a delay in filing the FIR by the Mumbai police, and when they eventually registered the case, it had already been seven months since the accused person died due to prolonged disease.

According to the police complaint, the 55-year-old complainant in the case, a former IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Ahmedabad, in the year 2021 met Vipparthi, his classmate in IIT-Madras, at a party. Another of the complainant’s classmates was present at the party, where Vipparthi informed them about his PMS (Portfolio Management Services) business.

Vipparthi, allegedly informed the two that if they invested money through his firm, his firm would invest in the share market and could get them a good profit, stated the complainant in his complaint.

Trusting Vipparthi, who was a friend and a classmate, the two decided to invest money through him, the complainant said.

Between January 2021 and March 2024, Vipparthi accepted money from the two friends in the account of his firm, Idika Consultancy Services LLP, states the FIR.

“He would regularly send us excel sheets showing the profit our investments had made. The last excel sheet he sent us showed with the profit earned, our capital had become around Rs 15 crore. We trusted him as he was our friend and classmate and never crossed-checked it. Later, we discovered that he defrauded us,” the complainant said.

“While we were chasing him for our money, we discovered that he had similarly defrauded over 20 of our classmates and seniors from IIM-Ahmedabad and was facing at least three criminal cases, including ones in Delhi and Bangalore,” the complainant added.

Vipparthi died of a prolonged disease in February 2024. The Powai businessman and his friend filed a police complaint the same month, but since an FIR was already registered against Vipparthi in Delhi, Mumbai EOW wrote to Delhi police requesting them to club Mumbai victim’s cases in their case. But, as they refused, after seven months, Mumbai EOW registered an FIR against Vipparthi (now dead) and his wife Fawzia.

The complainant has alleged that Fawzia is a partner in the firm, and she was hand-in-glove with the accused, Vipparthi.

On their complaint, the EOW carried out a preliminary inquiry and an FIR was registered on Tuesday against Vipparthi (now deceased) and Fawzia under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

The investigators are now probing as to where exactly Vipparthi diverted funds and will try to recover the same. The EOW is also likely to interrogate his wife, a police source said.

“We have learnt our lesson from this. In money matters, you should never trust anyone, not even your closest friend,” the second victim said.

When contacted by Fawzia for a comment she refused to talk on the matter and said, “I have nothing to say on this.”