Dehradun: Uttarakhand Police have arrested five persons for allegedly cheating people of crores of rupees in the Pauri Garhwal district of the state through a fake cooperative society.
The accused had committed similar frauds outside Uttarakhand, as Rs 189 crore has been deposited in its main account so far, which is under investigation, they said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Lokeshwar Singh told ETV Bharat that the initial investigation revealed that the money taken from the public was being sent abroad for the hawala trade.
How Did Police Unearth Fraud
Police said the issue came to the fore following a complaint by Kotdwar resident Tripti Negi against senior officers of the bank, namely ‘The Loni Urban Multi-State Credit & Thrift Co-operative Society (LUCC).’.
The officers named in the complaint include manager Vineet Singh and cashier Pragya Rawat of its Dugdda branch.
Negi alleged that the manager and cashier had taken money from her for opening a recurring deposit (RD), but had neither given her any bond for it nor deposited her money, thereby cheating her.
Special Team Investigated Case
Following the complaint, the police registered a case and formulated a special investigation team by the Additional Superintendent of Police, Kotdwar.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Girish Chandra Singh Bisht (GCS Bisht), a resident of Meera Nagar Birbhadra Rishikesh, opened a branch of LUCC in IDPL Rishikesh in 2016 and lured people with huge profits and made them invest their money in LUCC.
Bisht has so far opened about 35 branches of LUCC in Uttarakhand, including Dugdda, Kotdwar, Satpuli, and Srinagar in the Pauri district. Branches were also opened in Dehradun, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, and Tehri districts, etc.
He appointed four of his people as branch heads, including a Mangala resident of Meera Nagar Rishikesh, Tarun Maurya resident of Meera Nagar Rishikesh, Sonu resident of Herbertpur Vikasnagar, and Urmila Bisht, a resident of Rishikesh.
According to the police, the job of these four was to take money from other branches and send it forward through Bisht.
Bisht and his team of managers would organise seminars in order to lure people to invest money in LUCC. Initially, the people who invested were also given foreign tours and expensive gifts, gaining their trust.
Cases Registered In UP And MP
The investigation revealed that five cases were registered against LUCC Society in Kotwali Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh, in the year 2024. A similar case was registered in Madhya Pradesh.
Police said that Sameer Agarwal, son of Rajendra Agarwal, a resident of Mumbai and currently a resident of Dubai, established an organisation named SAGA in the year 2016, in which nine societies were formed. One of them is LUCC, whose business is in UP, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.
The other company was LJCC, which once operated in Madhya Pradesh; SSV is the third company located in Maharashtra; the fourth is SS which operated in Gujarat and Rajasthan; the fifth is For Human in Bihar and Haryana; and the sixth is Viswas, which works in Punjab.
One Accused Operating From Dubai
The police investigation also revealed that the involvement of Sameer Agarwal and RK Seddi, residents of Mumbai (finance advisor), Sanjay Mudgil trainer, and Parikshit Parsi legal advisor also came to light.
It also claimed that Agarwal fled to Dubai after he failed to return the maturity money of the account holders of LUCC and other societies.
Police suspected that people's money was being sent abroad through hawala in the name of investment.
“This year alone, people's money worth 50 lakh rupees matured in LUCC's Dugadda branch, but this company has not returned the money to anyone,” police said.
“About 189 crore rupees have been deposited in the main account of LUCC so far, but without returning this amount to the depositors, only 02 lakh rupees are left in the company's accounts,” they said.
During the investigation, the police also found out that the company had deposited people's money in the accounts of other persons and private accounts.
Also, the company does not have any valid documents related to opening a society in Uttarakhand.
Five persons arrested by the police include Jagmohan Singh Bisht (51) son of Narayan Singh Bisht of Rishikesh in Dehradun district and his wife Urmila Bisht (45), Pragya Rawat (25) and Vineet Singh (37) of Pauri Garhwal, and Girish Chandra Bisht (59) of Dehradun district.
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