Cricket’s cop Prabhakar in Rs 50-cr fraud — Police

According to Mehrotra, investigation in the case has led to several shocking disclosures. While refusing to reveal details in this regard, Mehrotra said that four cases of fraud have been registered against Prabhakar, who indulged in a massive public campaign, including addressing several public meetings, in 1994 in a bid to convince people to invest their money into the Apes India group of companies of which he was one of the directors.

Prabhakar then opened several branches of the said company with names like Apes India Leasing and Finance Ltd, Apes Saving and Mutual Benefit India, Apes Housing Finance and Construction Ltd by luring investors through attractive schemes like a `five-year money return’ and a `10-fold increase in 10 years’ scheme. Prabhakar managed to secure an average investment of Rs 25-30 lakh for each of the companies.

Mehrotra said that the company allegedly floated by the former cricketer had almost 360 branches in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

As a purported director of the company, Prabhakar is said to have signed the FDs, bond and the passbooks given to the investors besides the the service book given to the company’s employees. Further, he allegedly publicised that former UP Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari was one of the patrons of the company, a fact which Tiwari has denied.

However, on investigation it was found that no company by these names existed in these places. Even the company’s Lucknow-based headquarters had closed down. The company’s purported managing director, Divya Nautiyal is said to be absconding.

On May 24, while hearing petitions filed in the case by the numerous people to recover their money, Justice P C Verma of the Lucknow High Court ordered a stay on the sale of the various properties of the Apes group of companies.

The company’s headquarters at Lucknow and its offices at Haldwani have been sealed by the police, who now plan to make a detailed study of the documents seized from the company’s premises.