The company had downed its shutters after failing to pay back money on maturity of schemes. Depositors from over 12 cities in Gujarat and several cities of Maharashtra are understood to have lost their money .
Initial probe has revealed that the company collected over Rs 60 lakh from 450 depositors in Surat. Venus was set up in 2001 by Santosh Dhabholkar (chairman) and Shashikant Aahire (director).
The rented office of the company was located in the M block of Ranjit Studio located on the Dada Saheb Phalke Road in Dadar (east). The duo hailed from the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
Later Bait, who is from Thane, joined the company as director in charge of developing new business. After setting up branches in Maharashtra, the company set up 12 branches in Gujarat.
All the offices were manned by branch managers. The company had also recruited field officers and agents. In Surat, the company had appointed over 50 agents to garner deposits. The agents were paid an eight per cent commission on the businesses procured by them.
The scam came to light when about 10 depositors went to the company to collect their maturity amount.
After repeated visits, the company issued cheques to the depositors drawn in favour of the Textile Market branch of the Bank of India. However, the cheques bounced owing to
