Rs 1 Crore Fraud, 40 Duped: In three years, eight cases of kitty fraud reported in city

This July, a Mauli Jagran family, comprising a couple and their son and daughter, were arrested for cheating more than 60 people of Rs 30 lakh while collecting money on monthly basis from them for the last eight years.

AS MANY as eight cases of kitty phishing in which people were systematically cheated of their money and jewellery were reported in Chandigarh in the last three years. A victim of Shilpy Jindal and Raj Rishi Chauhan, arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police, had registered a complaint in August 2016, mentioning that she had been cheated by the duo. When the victim, Remy Kakkar, learnt of their arrest, she approached UT police again, who then registered an FIR on Tuesday.

Kakkar, was one of the 40 victims, who toghether lost more than Rs 1 crore to the duo in the kitty fraud case. In the FIR, Kakkar has said she started investing money in the gold kitties of Jindal and Chauhan since 2013 and “the two had built a strong trust among us by giving us jewellery items for some years. But, since September 2016, they did not pay anything to any investor”.

In each of the eight cases, the perpetrators have followed a similar modus operandi: inviting people to invest in kitties, giving them prizes for a couple of months, a sudden drying up of these ‘prizes’ and then disappearing after shutting shop.

In five of the eight cases being probed by the Economic Offences Wing of Chandigarh Police, the victims range from economically weaker sections (EWS) to well-off people.

This July, a Mauli Jagran family, comprising a couple and their son and daughter, were arrested for cheating more than 60 people of Rs 30 lakh while collecting money on monthly basis from them for the last eight years.

The family had built trust among investors – all middle-class residents of Mauli Jagran, Vikas Nagar and Manimajra – by giving them shiny new refrigerators, LCD, etc. But the goodies stopped abruptly. An FIR was filed aginst them at Mauli Jagran PS after 18 months.

DSP (EOW) Pawan Kumar said, “The kitty business is in every small and big city. In most cases, culprits build trust among investors by offering high returns on their money and suddenly disappear. In two of the eight cases, the accused also claimed during interrogation that they invested the money collected in housing projects, mutual funds and suffered huge losses.”

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Puttan Devi (55), a widow and resident of Raipur Khurd, who was arrested for cheating neraly Rs 26 lakh of several investors after collecting kitties of Rs 20,000 every month in September 2016, said she lost the money in mutual funds. Puttan is out on bail and undergoing trial..”

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