Threats, abuses, 100 calls from loan recovery agents: A day in the life of Pune investment scam victims

These individuals, who had difficulties in getting loans from banks owing to salary cuts during the pandemic or were struggling under the strain of credit card debt or personal loans, were sold on the promise of fool’s gold by a firm promoted by the suave Selva Kumar Nadar. His company, Ashtavinayak Investment, stands accused of facilitating personal loans, ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1 crore per person, from around 30 banks and NBFCs — all snowballing to about Rs 300 crore.

Barring the odd hiccup, Atar said, all was hunky-dory till the end of October 2022. In February, the investment firm’s swanky office in the upmarket Nucleus Mall in Pune Camp was sporting a lock and Nadar was in the wind. Then came the deafening knocks from recovery agents.

Atar, who works in the accounting department of a private firm, is among over 250 people who have approached Pune Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to complain that they had been defrauded by Ashtavinayak Investment. Nadar has since been officially declared an absconder.

“I come from a very poor family. My parents still stay in a slum in Ramoshi Ali. I stay in a rented flat with my wife and three children. I got drawn into the Ashtavinayak scheme because I was desperate to get rid of my credit card and personal debts, which were the result of a friend using my cards and then turning his back on me,” Atar added.

In June 2021, a telecaller approached Atar with the offer to clear his credit card loans. From here, Atar’s story followed the same trajectory as the other investors caught up in the riptide of Nadar’s con: sign up to become investors in the firm’s activities with 12 per cent returns; let the firm apply for bank loans on their behalf; transfer the loan amounts to Ashtavinayak’s accounts; receive regular equated monthly instalment (EMI) payments — for a while. From October 2022 onwards, according to complainants, the EMI payments became erratic, even as Nadar promised to “fix things”. Instead of fixing the issue, 39-year-old Nadar brought the shutters down on Ashtavinayak Investment in February and disappeared.

“I spend most of my time speaking to recovery agents. Once I did not pick up their call, so they turned up at my parents’ house and created a ruckus. Now I take every call and explain my situation to them honestly,” said Atar. “When I speak from the heart, they listen patiently. But they return to the question: ‘When are you going to arrange the money’. I have no answer.”

Atar, who earns Rs 60,000 per month, owes six banks a total of Rs 58 lakh. He said the EMI for these loans comes to Rs 1.3 lakh. In the 20 minutes The Indian Express spent with Atar at his third-floor flat in Pune’s Hadapsar, he missed 12 calls, all from recovery agents.

Nadar promised to fix the issue but he shut the company in February and disappeared.

Loopholes in the system

EOW officials have, since the issue was brought to their notice, deployed all available resources to this case.

“At the moment, we are recording the statements of these investors and pursuing various leads to locate Nadar,” said Assistant Police Inspector Mayur Vairagkar, the investigating officer.

He added that Nadar’s cell phone was found discarded in Khopoli, about 80 km from Pune city, a few weeks ago and that the lab is trying to recover information from it.

However, this case has brought forth several key questions — mainly about the possible collusion between the firm and the banks, since the latter disbursed multiple personal loans to the same applicant without checking their credit history or financial status and allowed an investment firm to push the paperwork through for these loans.

EOW officials said they had sought details from the banks involved in issuing these loans. According to bank officials, Nadar’s firm exploited the delay in updating of records by CIBIL, the credit information system on which banks rely. This delay allowed Ashtavinayak Investment to push for quick and multiple loan disbursals, some of which were issued within a day or two of the papers being filed.

While some were individuals facing difficulties in getting bank loans due to salary cuts during the pandemic, the others were approached by accessing their contacts from data vendors.

“Since banks were busy due to the financial year-end, they could not provide the information we had sought. We have sent them a reminder. Hopefully, the investigation will move ahead on that front this month,” added Vairagkar.

A bank official said, “Just as we do in all cases of overdue and defaulted (loans and credit card debt), we have started recovery proceedings from clients involved in this case too.”

However, EOW officials said they would not be able to provide any relief to Nadar’s victims from the loan recovery process.

“We are investigating a case of financial fraud. To deal with bank recovery procedures, the investors should take the help of lawyers and deal with that issue separately,” Vairagkar said.

Apart from threats over recovery of loans, life after work for most of Ashtavinayak’s defrauded investors revolves around visiting the EOW office to check on the status of the case, speaking to lawyers on legal action or moves by banks on salary attachment and supporting other victims.

‘They manhandled me, my wife’

In north-eastern Pune’s Dhanori, 50-year old Nishant said he patiently fended recovery calls from multiple banks for several weeks till the agents started abusing him in “filthy language”.

“I was shocked at the language. I told them that they could not be from the bank. When I asked them to share their names, they refused. When I asked for an ID, they shared the ID card of another bank employee. Finally, I decided to approach the police,” said Nishant, who works at a private firm.

Adding that his wife has orthopaedic issues, while he suffers from diabetes, he continued, “Apart from personal loans worth Rs 40 lakh that the firm applied for in my name, I had invested Rs 24 lakh from my savings in the company. That amount is also gone. I earn about Rs 35,000 and spend most of it on rent, medicines and groceries. I had to borrow money from friends and acquaintances just to get by this past week. My wife and I have stopped going to private hospitals because we can’t afford them anymore. I wonder what will happen to my wife if something happens to me.”

Ravi Gaikwad, another “profile investor” from Dighi, which is on the city’s outskirts, claimed the bank recovery agents “really crossed the line” in his case.

“A few weeks ago, my wife and I were manhandled by three recovery agents who had come on behalf of the credit card department of a private bank. They landed at my house early in the morning and demanded that I pay my dues immediately. When I told them that I was unable to pay up, they asked me to accompany them to the police station. When I asked them to show me a letter or an ID card, things turned ugly,” alleged the networking engineer.

“They manhandled my wife and me, abused us and created a ruckus in the society. They left after our neighbours intervened. After the incident, I went to the police station and submitted a complaint. Since I did not know their names, I went to the bank for information on them and managed to get the name and number of one of the agents. However, I did not pursue the case because that would have meant spending extra time on it. That would have affected my work,” he said.

Gaikwad, who earns Rs 80,000 a month, had an existing EMI of Rs 50,000 on a home loan when he became a “profile investor” with Ashtavinayak. This new position came with six more personal loans totalling Rs 65 lakh or an EMI of Rs 1.9 lakh.

“In 2022, I was persuaded to hand over four credit cards to Ashtavinayak in return for a Rs 5-lakh loan that I needed but was unable to get. Ashtavinayak used my cards and ran up debts of Rs 10 lakh but did not give me the promised loan. Now I am left with this outstanding debt as well,” he said, adding that these loans were separate from the loan of Rs 65 lakh.

Stating that he receives “about 60 calls from banks each day, which goes up to about 100 from the 15 of each month — with each bank making five to 10 calls a day”, Gaikwad said, “Since these calls affect my work and I do not want to lose my job, I keep my phone off during office hours. However, some recovery agents have started calling on my wife instead.”

According to several complainants, legal notices from banks and non-banking financial firms have started to pile up, with threats of action against under Section 136 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (dishonoured cheques) and Section 25 of Payment and Settlement Systems Act (dishonouring an electronic payment). Some of these notices, they added, have also threatened to attach their salaries to recover the loan amounts.

The brainchild behind the scam

According to the Ashtavinayak Investment website, Nadar established his investment consultancy in 2009, soon after finishing his studies from Pune and Mumbai. He was also involved in share market coaching and banking consultancy. In 2017, he shifted his office to the tony Nucleus Mall. That same year, he married a woman he knew from his college days in Pune. Before he shifted to another apartment in the same housing society with his wife and son last year, he stayed with his mother in a 3-BHK (bedroom, hall and kitchen) apartment in Kondhwa for a long time. While Nadar, his wife and son are on the run, his mother’s apartment is empty.

Ashtavinayak Investment’s office has been locked since Feb. (Atikh Rashid)

At his eighth-floor office, Nadar often told his defrauded clients that he ran a coaching class on share marketing and operated several girls’ hostels. Claiming that he would give 6 to 12 per cent returns to his clients on the amount invested, Nadar would execute notarised agreements with these investors which, the police now said, had no legal value as the business model was illegal.

The Indian Express has confirmed through site visits that most of his businesses were either long defunct or decoys. The police have sealed an apartment owned by Nadar in Pune’s Magarpatta worth Rs 4.6 crore. They are also confirming the ownership of another flat in Kondhwa, where he stayed with wife and son.

With no relief in sight, Atar said, “We are hoping that the state government, investigating agencies and bank authorities take a sympathetic view of our situation and help us.”