In 1996, Sheregar, a BEST employee, had started many double-your-money schemes. The schemes, floated through four or five agents, were called Dhanvarsha, Vaibhavlaxmi, Mahalaxmi, Kuber and Golden Chain. They were first offered to BEST employees. Invested money, a minimum of Rs 2,000, was doubled in six months. But by 1997, Sheregar was offering to double investor money in 30 days. By then, investors had put in more than Rs 100 crore into Sheregars schemes.
More than 5,000 investors who lost money after alleged fraudster Ashok Sheregar was arrested in November 1997, have received some or all of their money back from the Mumbai police, who started repaying the money in January.
In a related development, a special court the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) court ordered the police on February 7 to once again entertain complaints from investors who lost money, with the result that large crowds are now seen outside police headquarters at Crawford Market. Yesterday, morning there were more than 500 people in queue.
Several police constables and officers of the General branch, CID, are busy taking investor complaints and returning money at police HQ. Because of the crowds, one policeman said, The job has become painful.
Inspector Subhash Chutke said the reason for the rush is, There is a rumour that we will accept complaints only till February 16, which is not true. There is no deadline.
Around 92,000 people had invested in Sheregars scheme till his arrest. From 1997 to January 2000 about 11,000 of them filed complaints with the police. From 2000 onwards, the police had stopped taking complaints, which resulted in four advocates Ravindra Jadhav, Ganesh Khutal, Amol Walawalkar and Suresh More filing a petition before judge Roshan Dalavi on behalf of 500 investors. The MPID court ordered the police to take complaints again.
Presently, only those who filed complaints before January 2000 are receiving money back. Chutke said, Those who invested in the Mahalaxmi scheme, and who complained before 2000, are getting a 100 per cent refund. Forty per cent of the invested sum is being returned to investors in the Dhanvarsha scheme. In other schemes, investors are only getting 25 per cent back.
Authorities questioned where Sheregar was getting such money from and charged that it was illegal for him to run such schemes.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police began arresting Sheregar, his agents and sub-agents in November 1997. Police seized 192 accounts Sheregar had opened in 61 banks. The accounts held a total of Rs 10 crore.
The Income-Tax department took Rs 4.3 crore as taxes and the remainder was put into a Fixed Deposit (FD).
To date, the FD has accrued Rs 11 lakh in interest and police are using that amount to repay investors.
Chutke also said, The court recently ordered I-T to repay the Rs 4.3 crore to the police, as that was not supposed to be income. The police are still to get that money. Once it arrives, it will also be used to pay back investors.
In addition, cops are trying to recover lakhs of rupees Sheregar invested in horticulture companies. In one firm, Adventure Horticulture, he reportedly invested Rs 58 lakh. That money would also be used to pay back investors.
Finally, there are the seized assets of four or five agents and 69 sub-agents. After selling their properties, the court will give directions about repaying investors, Chutke said.
Meanwhile, investors have renewed hope they will get back their money. BEST employee Anil Jagtap said, I invested Rs 2,000 at first. But once I got double the amount back as promised, I reinvested Rs 15,000. Apart from that, my father and brother also invested in the double-your-money schemes. We did not file a complaint earlier as we had no knowledge about it.
Nandu Patil, another person in queue, said, I was told that these people were importing electronic items which were very cheap in foreign countries. They were earning profits more than 200 per cent and that is how they paid double the amount within a month. I invested because I saw friends getting double money from the schemes.
Sunil Dangle, another investor, said, The scheme seemed very lucrative as it doubled your money in 30 days. At the end of it all, we realised we had been greedy.
* On November 7, 1997, Michael DSouza, a BEST cleaner, was arrested by the Mumbai police General Branch in connection with the Vaibhavlaxmi scheme floated by Sheregar. As per the scheme, investors were promised double the investment in two months. DSouza, an agent, had collected Rs 67.4 lakh and earned nearly a lakh in commission. The total amount collected by the promoter and agent was Rs 18.6 crore.
* On September 2, 1999, 61 people, including Sheregar, were chargesheeted by the police for allegedly cheating several people of their money by promising them huge returns.
* Police arrested and released on bail Shrikant Dhole, who was the agent for the Mahalaxmi scheme.
* Also out on bail is Gurunath Harpale, agent for the Dhanvarsha scheme.
* Absconding is Prajapati, agent for the Kuber scheme.
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