Actor Leena Paul and her boyfriend Sukesh Chandrashekhar, out on bail after being arrested for allegedly cheating a Chennai bank of Rs. 19 crore in 2013, have been held by the Mumbai Police on the charge of duping close to 1,000 investors to the tune of Rs. 10 crore.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police has arrested the couple and four others this time for running several schemes under the company name ‘Lion Oak India’. Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) Dhananjay Kamalakar said that the couple obtained bail in 2014 and shifted base to Mumbai where they rented a place in suburban Goregaon and soon floated bogus schemes.
“These schemes with names such as ‘Special Harvest Week’ and ‘Diwali Bonanza’, they would accept cash deposits ranging between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 50,000 assuring the investors a 20 per cent return per month in addition to a reward of a Tata Nano car.
Impressed by Sukesh’s lavish lifestyle and reassured by fake certificates and notarised documents, unsuspecting investors fell prey,” Mr. Kamalakar said.
He added that to boast his status, Sukesh would display high-end cars, expensive watches and weapons. His fondness for these articles had also come to the fore during his and Leena’s earlier arrests by Delhi and Chennai Police. Since back then many of the cars seized from the couple were found to be stolen, the police are checking ownership of the cars seized this time round.
The arrests were made on a tip-off received by the police’s intelligence department even though no investor has come forward so far.
Leena was arrested in May 2013 from a south Delhi farmhouse while Sukesh was arrested from a mall in Jadavpur in July that year for cheating the Chennai-based Canara Bank.
