Torres Ponzi scheme fraud: Uzbek national’s bail application claims she is only a language interpretor
The police claimed that she's a general manager at the Shivaji Park store of the company and Rs 77 lakh were recovered from her residence during searches after her arrest.
3 min read
Tazagul alias Tanya Khasatova, an Uzbekistan national, was arrested on January 5 by the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing.In the Torres fraud case, one of the accused persons has claimed that she worked only as a language interpreter on a few occasions for the company and was arrested when she went to help her friend from an angry mob of investors.
Tazagul alias Tanya Khasatova, an Uzbekistan national, was arrested on January 5 by the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing. The police claimed that she’s a general manager at the Shivaji Park store of the company and Rs 77 lakh were recovered from her residence during searches after her arrest.
The 53-year-old has claimed that she is not connected to Platinum Hern Pvt Ltd, which runs the Torres jewellery brand. She said that she herself had invested Rs 8 lakh in the company and incurred losses. Her bail application was filed through lawyers Atharva Gade and Samsher Garud and says that Tazagul has been working in India from 2007 as an interpreter for various languages such as Russian, Ukrainian/Uzbek for various foreign nationals who come to India for business purposes. She is married to an Indian national and has no permanent job at any one place or any company with various friends from Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, who help each other in getting work as translators and interpreters, the plea said.
“The applicant in the year 2024 was called as an interpreter by the accused company officers on one occasion as their promoters are people based in Ukraine and Russia, for which she was paid her fees. Thereafter on and off the applicant used to be called for being an interpreter between foreign and Indian nationals who were working for them,” the plea says, adding that she had only visited the company’s Shivaji Park office once or twice, and was never employed there or accepted cash from the investors.
Her plea adds that she received a frantic call on January 5 from her friend, co-accused Valentina Kumar, that certain investors are at the office and are threatening to break open the safes of the company and take away jewellery and cash if they are not paid…In the process they had manhandled the co-accused who sought help from this applicant who immediately rushed to their office to rescue her friend. Thereafter there were heated arguments between various groups of people and the co-accused who were not allowed to leave the premises till the police came. The applicant was merely protecting her friend from the angry mob which had gathered and was not in any way employed or connected with the accused company,” the plea states. The police are likely to file a reply on February 1 to the bail plea.
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