The Hindu : New Delhi News : Beware of the conmen Law & order

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Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
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New Delhi

Beware of the conmen Law & order

Financial fraud cases reported from different parts of the Capital in the recent past have brought to the fore the plight of hundreds of innocent investors who are trapped into parting with their hard earned money in the hope of good returns. Lured by the prospect of making a fast buck, they end up becoming easy targets for conmen.

Most shocking of them all is the alleged involvement of a former Delhi MLA from Najafgarh in a cheating case. Ranbir Singh Kharb and his wife were arrested recently for allegedly duping several people by promising them huge returns against investments in his company. The modus operandi was pretty simple: collect the money and refuse to return it. The majority of his victims were his own relatives and friends.

In a similar case not long ago the police had arrested another couple, Subhash Aggarwal and his wife, for allegedly swindling money invested by a large number of people in their company. Although the accused had made unrealistic promises, they were able to convince the victims to invest. Similar was the case of Naveen Sharma from neighbouring Gurgaon who vanished with huge sums of money invested by businessmen and a large number of retired and serving Army personnel. The accused had promised a 10 per cent interest per month on the invested amount, an offer too lucrative to be real.

Last month the police also received several complaints against Ashok Jadeja, who was arrested by the Ahmedabad police along with his wife on charges of cheating hundreds of people on the pretext of tripling their money.

In almost all these cases, the accused had made unrealistic promises and yet they were able to trap innocent people by employing various modus operandi. Endowed with the gift of the gab, they managed to win the confidence of their victims and dupe them. “This shows that the lust for money leads many people to do things that simply defy logical reasoning,” says a senior police officer, advising the public to remain cautious and double-check the credentials of the company or the person before investing.

The police for their part need to take pro-active measures for early detection of financial frauds to limit their impact. Since recovery of the money becomes very difficult, an intuitive and speedy police action is very important in such cases. Though the nature of complaints received from various police stations, a close watch can be kept on emerging trends.

Studying trends becomes important in understanding the extent of a fraud and it also helps in looking into a case in totality, not as individual losses involving meagre amounts.

Since investigations into financial frauds require a great deal of patience and analytical skills, police officers endowed with such qualities should be handpicked to form a dedicated team.

And in this regard, the recent decision of the Delhi police to set up an economic offences wing in every police district of the Capital is a welcome step.

Devesh K. Pandey

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