Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has initiated a probe into a Rs 400 crore fraud committed by a Prayagraj-based real estate firm that duped hundreds of people.
As part of the investigations, ED is trying to find out as to how many people had invested in this firm with or without their names. To begin with, it is questioning plaintiff Kaushal Singh, who had filed the first case in this matter.
Notably, the firm, Niharika Ventures was started by Abhishek Dwivedi in 2020 and the latter had made hundreds of people invest here in the name of making investments in property and stock market. He had allegedly lured people of doubling their invested money and giving them high interests. However, in June, managing director Abhishek Dwivedi and his wife Niharika along with the employees absconded after locking the company's office.
After this, many people, including Kaushal Singh, filed a case against the company and its owners with the police. After registering the case, police have arrested four people, including Abhishek Dwivedi and his father OP Dwivedi.
Now, in oder to get more information about the case, ED sent a notice to plaintiff Kaushal Singh and called him to record his statement. Kaushal Singh was questioned for several hours by ED officials, who sought information about Niharika Ventures and its MD Abhishek Dwivedi. This apart, ED also questioned about the people who had invested in this company.
According to investor Kaushal Singh, who had registered a case at Civil Lines police station, Niharika Ventures had its office on Civil Lines and the company had promised to provide up to six percent profit every month to people investing in real estate and stock market.
"I had invested Rs 35 lakh while hundreds of others had invested crores of rupees. Apart from Prayagraj, investors hailed from different districts including Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Varanasi and Lucknow," he said.
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