Mastermind in Hello Taxi scam nabbed from Bhubaneshwar

EOW nabbed the mastermind in Hello Taxi scam Saroj Mahapatra from Bhubaneshwar. The accused along with others had duped more than 900 investors.

New Delhi: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Friday arrested one of the key owners of SMP Imax Private Ltd from Bhubaneshwar who was involved in 'Hello Taxi' scam which duped more than 900 investors of around Rs 10 crore. The accused has been identified as Saroj Mahapatra and he carried a bounty of Rs 50,000 on his head.

Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police OP Mishra said, "A complaint was filed by Dharmendra which stated that accused, along with five others, had opened a company named SMP Imax Pvt Ltd in Rohini Sector-16. The directors of the company Saroj Mahapatra, Rajesh Mahato, Vijay Menon, Sundar Singh Bhati, Harish Bhati and others started an app-like service Hello Taxi in which they promised investors to pay a higher interest of up to 200 per cent on monthly basis. But the accused neither paid the interest not returned the invested money.

Initially, EOW had filed a case in 2019 following which at least 350 complainants approached the police.

Singh said that the company was registered under RBI or SEBI and had collected nearly Rs 10 crore from the investors. He stated that after collecting a lumpsum amount from investors, the accused fled away.

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During the course of the investigation, the officials also seized the bank accounts of the accused having Rs 3.27 crore in it along with 92 vehicles worth Rs 5 crore.

The police had arrested two accused Rajesh Mahato and Vijay Manon and they are incarcerated in jail. Two accused Sundar Singh Bhati and Saroj Mahapatra were absconding.

ACP Nagin Kaushik and SI Shivdev were led by DCP Urvija Goyal to nab the accused. The accused told police that they were planning to buy a taxi with the investors' money.