Ponzi scheme: Mumbai couple booked for duping 444 people of Rs 20.14 crore
The case has been transferred to the EOW for further investigation, an officer said.
4 min read
Accused Raeesa Khan Poonawala and her husband Mustafa Baig were booked on Poonawala's elder sister, also a victim, Bilkis Afroz Shaikh. Mumbai police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) officials on Wednesday registered an investment related fraud case against a couple for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme and duping 444 people to the tune of Rs 20.14 crore.
Raeesa Khan Poonawala, 46 and her husband Mustafa Baig have been booked on the complaint of Poonawala’s elder sister Bilkis Afroz Shaikh, 48, who is also one of the victims.
As per the FIR (a copy of which is with The Indian Express), Poonawala and Baig owned a firm called RK Interior.
The FIR states the two induced investors into investing money in their firm and promised 150 per cent interest in 90-100 days on the invested amount. They had their office in Daulat Nagar, Santacruz (West).
The complainant Bilkis Afroz Shaikh, 48, who runs a boutique, said that she trusted her sister (Poonawala) and invested around Rs 18 lakh herself and further encouraged others to invest.
Shaikh also told other friends and relatives to take advantage of the scheme and invest money in her sister’s company to earn exorbitant profit, a police source said.
Trusting Shaikh’s reference, hundreds of people invested money with Poonawala via Shaikh. Most of the investment was in cash.
Most of the investors are said to hail from middle class families and are small business operators. One of the investors had invested Rs 8 crore.
After the stipulated time when Poonawala failed to give promised returns, angry investors began asking Shaikh to return their money as they trusted her words. After Shaikh demanded money from her sister Poonawala, she returned some money back to Shaikh so that she could return it to investors.
“Poonawala took my and my husband’s cheque books, got our signatures on them and gave it to the investors as assurance. Later, when Poonawala failed to fulfill her promises, the angry investors submitted the cheques in the bank which subsequently bounced due to insufficient funds in the account. Following this the investors filed cases against me and my husband for the bouncing cheques,” said Shaikh, while speaking to The Indian Express.
She added, “I have suffered a lot. The police too didn’t file my complaint for a long period. Since people trusted me and invested money via me, I fought for their justice and finally an FIR was registered after seven years.”
The police have already registered a cheating case against Poonawala and her husband in the past for a similar fraud and have arrested them too. They are currently on bail in that case.
“Shaikh has been running from pillars to posts to get her FIR registered against her younger sister who defrauded people by misusing her name and goodwill. Finally, we approached the Bandra magistrate court and filed a complaint. After eight months the court directed the police to register an FIR under sections 156(3) of CrPC against the accused persons and investigate the matter,” said Shaikh’s lawyer Raees Khan.
The Santacruz police have booked Poonawala and her husband Baig under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, banker, merchant, or agent), and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3 and 4 of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment (MPID) Act.
The case has been transferred to the EOW for further investigation, an officer said.
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