4 held for duping several of Rs 562 crore

Four persons have been arrested for allegedly duping lakhs of people of Rs 562 crore by claiming to have divine power to triple money, police said today.
The main accused and gang leader, Ashok Jadeja (38), claimed that he was blessed by Sikodar Mata deity who had given him the power to triplicate money in no time.
Parveen Popat (35), Khimji Bhai Jedeja (58) and Kesha Ram (59), who were also nabbed, worked as collection agents along with other gang members, they said.
Around 95 cases were lodged against the accused across the country, police said.
"Due to false representations and faith in caste and religion, many innocent people fell prey to this elaborate sham and offered all they had to the cheats," Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) Praveer Ranjan said.

Ranjan said his department had received more than 2,800 complaints from Delhi alone involving an amount of over Rs 25 crore in the case.
The members of the gang were earlier arrested by Ahmedabad police, but were on the run after fleeing from judicial custody in the cases pertaining to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharasthra, police said.
"After arrest, the four accused were produced in Delhi on a production warrant and are under police custody. Efforts are on to trace the other accused operating in Delhi and other states," police said.