Srinagar: The police on Sunday arrested the owner of Jayanti Traders, Arun Raj Chalailya from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu in a Rs 3 crore fraud case in Uttarakhand's Srinagar, an official said. Chalailya opened a shop at Srinagar Kala road along with his accomplice and allegedly cheated local businessmen of crores of Rupees on the pretext of buying furniture and household items from locals and traders.
Shurveer Singh Bhandari, a resident of Srinagar, had filed a complaint that Arun Raj Chalailya had cheated crores in the name of buying furniture from locals and traders, Pauri SSP Shweta Chobey said. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case and started an investigation into the matter. After a year of investigation, the accused was arrested from Tamil Nadu, Chobey said.
During the interrogation, Arun Raj said he had come to Srinagar in 2021 before Dhanteras for business. He took crores from the locals and traders on Dhanteras as an advance by luring them to provide goods and after then he absconded. Confessing the crime during the interrogation, the accused said that they had done a similar kind of fraud at different places in Rudraprayag, Rishikesh and Uttarakhand.
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During the investigation, the Pauri police announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for the accused Arun Raj Chalailya. Officials who arrested Arun include senior sub-inspector Santosh Pathwal, sub-inspector Ranveer Chandra Ramola, head constable Majid Khan and constable Harish.
Earlier, Income Tax Department raided the premises of renowned pan masala businesses at 10 different locations in the Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh and recovered at least Rs 3 crore in cash. As per the officials, the raids were launched at the premises owned by Kishor and National Gutka owners Sudhir Awasthi and Praveen Awasthi by a team of 50 officers led by Deputy Commissioner Bharat Awasthi.
During the raids, which lasted for about 34 hours, cash worth over Rs 3 crore was recovered, officials said. Besides, many other documents related to investment in business and properties were confiscated, they added.
