Over `100 crore swindled by fake money investment company

1 August 2012

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 1 AUG: A racket promising doubling of money under a fake money investment company is operating across the state for years while the state intelligence wings have no information about the racketeers.
The gang has already swindled money to the tune of Rs 100 crore from people living in East and West Midnapore districts, and the investors who fell prey to the money-doubling scheme, find themselves without redress owing to the  alleged apathy of police and the district administration.
The incident came to light after Subhabrata Das, one of the victims, lodged a complaint with the Khejuri police station in East Midnapore on 27 July alleging that Swadesh Maity and Sutanu Maity, residents of Adampur village in Khejuri, had approached him, introducing themselves as employees of Travel Ventures International (TVI) Express, an international network company, and advised him to invest in their firm. They had assured the complainant high returns on the investment.
“Accordingly, I invested Rs 15,500 and became a sponsor of the network company. As per condition, I inducted many other persons who also invested the same amount on hopes of high returns. But, after a few months, when I didn’t get subsidiary returns, I learnt that no money was deposited in our name in the company’s account. Later, we found the names of several persons, including Biswarup Das, a laboratory assistant of IIT Kharagpur, involved in the racket and they have already cheated Rs 100 crore from people of both East and West Midnapore districts,” Mr Das alleged.
Mr Das also informed police that 27,648 persons from East Midnapore district had invested their money, but none of them got returns till date. The gang has swindled Rs 45 crore from East Midnapore district alone.
Meanwhile, the company has published a document in its website highlighting the fact that many persons were involved in illegal practices in the name of the company. In the document, the company has also mentioned the names of the persons who have already been terminated by the company for their illegal practices. In the list of terminated persons from India, it includes the names of the racketeers who have duped the people in East and West Midnapore districts.
A police officer said the racketeers had hacked the company’s website and introduced a page into it. By showing the company’s website in which their fake page documents were tagged, they duped the people. When the company came to know about the matter, they terminated the fake page document and blacklisted the racketeers who were once the members of the company, the police officer said.
The sabhadhipati of East Midnapore zilla parishad, Mamud Hossain, said: “I have already informed the state finance minister, Mr Amit Mitra, urging him to take immediate action. I have also informed the SP, East Midnapore about the racket."