Itanagar: The Capital police has arrested the kingpin of a Ponzi scheme scam, who had duped some 6,000 investors of an estimated ₹17 crore.
The police arrested Braj Kishore Chaudhury from Patna, Bihar on February 23 along with his accomplices identified as Raju Dutta, Nishith Murthy, Joydeep Dutta, Santosh Kumar, Bipin Kumar and Deepak Kar aka BK Sharma.
Addressing media persons at his office here, Capital SP Jimmy Chiram said it took almost a year to arrest the kingpin by the police. He said the arrest was not easy as the accused was hiding out in multiple locations within the country and the police had to travel to other states.
With the intensive investigation, multiple attempts, technical surveillance and the help of Bihar police, the team arrested Chaudhury, the SP said.
Chiram said the scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.
“In 2021, Raju Dutta offered one Ha Takio a scheme to invest his money in share market through a company named Algoacademy. An FIR was registered after Takio was duped,” he said, adding that the case pertains to a multi-level marketing scheme from August 2020 to March 2021.
The SP said, responding to the FIR, the police arrested four persons from across the country through technical surveillance.
“The initial chargesheet was filed in 2021. However, with the arrest of the kingpin, the Capital police filed a supplementary chargesheet and the investigation is being carried out for any other involvements,” he added.
He said thousands of accounts were opened from Arunachal Pradesh and a total investment of around ₹17 crore was made. Out of this, ₹8 crore was returned while ₹9 crore was siphoned off.
The police were able to trace ₹71 lakh routed to 14 different accounts by the perpetrators, which were later frozen. The investigation was complex as it involved website checking and bank details and the use of fake IDs, he added.
“I urge the public to read documents properly before investing. If there is any doubt, please verify before investing. Police can’t take suo motu action in such cases unless there is a written complaint,” Chiram said.
He also said the case could be solved only because of the intensive investigation by the police team led by investigating officer, Inspector A K Pandey, head constable S K Jha and Nabam Sarbang, who extended technical support.
