Mumbai-based CA and financial consultant Amber Dalal, who was arrested over an investment fraud, has duped 2,009 investors to the tune of Rs 1,100 crore in the past 14 years, according to a charge sheet prepared by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police .
The EOW, which has been probing the matter for three months, on Friday submitted the 44,000-page charge sheet against Dalal before a special Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) court. The charge sheet was taken to the court in Fort from EOW’s Mazgaon office in six trunks in a separate vehicle.
Police have recorded accounts of hundreds of witnesses, including of the staff who worked in Dalal’s firm Ritz Consultancy Services’s office.Since the police have included details of all the transactions of investors with accounts directly or indirectly belonging to Dalal’s, the chargesheet has run into thousands of pages. Police have also attached a preliminary audit report carried out by a forensic auditor and awaiting a final report.
Once received EOW may file a supplementary chargesheet against Dalal, the only arrested accused in the case. Police are also in the process of getting key witnesses’ accounts recorded under the provisions of Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.Promising monthly returns of 1.5 to 1.8 per cent on investments, Dalal allegedly duped investors under the pretext of further investing their money in trading of risk-free commodities. After 2016, he started accepting only investments above Rs 10 lakh. Till February this year, he has paid investors regular interests. After defaulting payment to investors between March 10-13, the 59-year-old Oshiwara resident went into hiding on March 14.
After dodging police for 12 days, he was finally arrested on March 26 from a hotel in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh.The EOW, however, managed to identify properties worth only Rs 17 crore belonging to Dalal and this will be auctioned in further course of time to recover investors’ money, sources in the agency told The Indian Express.
These mainly include his current Oshiwara house where his family is staying. He also has two under-construction flats in Goregaon, two four-wheelers, gold jewelry worth Rs 28 lakh, and a plot in Thane.
The same would be attached under due process and would be auctioned under court’s supervision to recover the money of the investors under the provisions of the MPID Act.
An EOW source said that during interrogation, Dalal admitted before the investigators that his formulas and methods of trading on commodities have failed after slump in the market due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which is why he was unable to deliver money to his investors.cops
EOW officers said as details of more of his properties surface in future, supplementary chargesheets will be filed.
Dalal has been charged under relevant sections of the IPC and MPID Act for cheating, criminal breach of trust and investment fraud, among others.Under the guidance of senior officers, EOW unit-12 senior inspector Sachin Kadam and his team investigated the matter and prepared the chargesheet.
Dalal is currently in judicial custody.
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