The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is all set to attach movable and immovable property worth nearly Rs. 125 crore in the Stock Guru India scam busted about six months ago by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police. Assuring a 20 per cent return per month on investments, a young couple had in conspiracy with their accomplices conned 2 lakh people of over Rs. 500 crore.
Based on the probe conducted so far, the ED has learnt that a clear-cut case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is made out against the accused persons. The agency has received a huge pile of documents regarding the transactions made by the accused persons through bank accounts, most of which were purportedly opened on forged identification documents like PAN cards and driving licences.
Over 140 such accounts being maintained with several banks were traced during the police probe. Surprisingly, the main accused had managed to open six to 20 accounts with a single branch.
The ED is in the process of recording the statement of main accused Ulhas Prabhakar Khaire, who was arrested by the Delhi Police along with his wife Raksha J. Urs. The two alleged “masters in the art of deceit and disguise” operated under various pseudonyms and had been evading arrest since April 2011. They were finally tracked down last November.
The police in their final report, recently submitted before a city court, named 11 persons, including the couple. Investigations revealed that before floating a “financial consultancy company” named Stock Guru India, Mr. Khaire allegedly ran a physiotherapy centre and had cheated several people.
Around 15 properties owned directly and indirectly by the accused have been identified in Delhi, Goa, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. “Seven to eight immovable properties are located at Dwarka in south west Delhi. All the properties, including fixed-deposits, which are found to be part of the proceeds of the crime will be attached,” said an official.
The Economic Offences Wing had made huge seizures and identified 15 vehicles belonging to the accused couple. The police had also seized from Mr. Khaire an audio-clip containing purported conversations between him and an Income Tax official, which on further enquiry revealed that a team of IT officials had carried out searches against Mr. Khaire for suspected tax violations. However, the two sides then struck a deal and the matter was hushed up on alleged payment of bribe worth crores.
Following a complaint, the Central Bureau of Investigation in January registered a case and conducted searches at the premises of Yogendra Mittal, a 2006-batch Indian Revenue Service officer.
