Fraud - Abhinav Gold International

Two frauds unearthed as organisers fail to pay back

Source – Times of India

SURAT: Two major financial frauds cropped up in the city on Wednesday. While the first pertains to a gold financing scheme, the second has to do with Haj travel. In both cases, middle-class people lost hard-earned money. The crime branch registered a plaint against the promoters and agents of Abhinav Gold International Pvt Ltd, Anil Shankar Birla and Murlidhar Shankar Birla, both residents of Pur Road, Pansal Chauraha, Bhilvada, Rajasthan, and Rohit Dahya Thakkar, an Adajan area resident of the city.

The plaint has been lodged by Rakesh Dhansukh Rajjoshi, resident of Silver Plaza apartment, Anand Mahel Road, one of the victims and had invested total Rs 75,000 in the scheme. Rajjoshi said in his plaint that the company offered a scheme in which an individual could earn benefits every two months on investing Rs 6,000 in gold. The company collected Rs 6,000 from each investor which was promised to be invested in gold.

Around 20,000 people from the city invested in the scheme and the total amount of the money collected by the company is yet to be ascertained.

The company promised returns of Rs 42 at the end of first two months after next two months Rs 84 was promised. The amount was doubled every two months taking the total amount to Rs 1.72 lakh at the end of two years. After initial payments the company stopped paying the investors.

Despite several reminders the company did not paid the money to investors following which Rajjoshi approached police. Investigation so far revealed that a large number of investors from across the country invested in the company.

In another alleged fraud, a group of Haj pilgrim gheraoed the residence of a Haj organiser on Wednesday to collect their passports, visa documents and fees paid. The organizer, Ayyub Dhol, went missing from his office and residence. The pilgrims alleged that each pilgrim paid Rs 2.5 lakh for Haj and had given their passports for processing but they were not sent on Haj. Around 200 pilgrims had paid Dhol.

The last date for Haj being October 15, the pilgrims rushed to the organizeras office to collect their money. However, no police complaint has been lodged in the incident.