Three more employees of Bike Bot taxi service, accused of duping Rs 3,000 to 4,000 crore rupees from 2.25 lakh investors in multiple states, have been arrested by the Noida police, officials said on Monday.
A Special Investigation Team was formed to probe the matter after at least 46 FIRs were registered against the Greater Noida-based company earlier this year, a senior officer said
"Those arrested have been identified as Harish Kumar, 43, Rajesh Singh, 39, Vishal Kumar, 35, and all three worked as additional directors in the company," Senior Superintendent of Police, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Vaibhav Krishna said.
He said so far 11 accused officials including the boss of Bike Bot company, Sanjay Bhati, have been arrested, while 12 more named in the FIRs are at large and efforts were on to nab them.
The Garvit Innovative Promoters Limited (GIPL) company in Greater Noida had come out with the multi-level marketing scheme BikeBot and lured investors with a promise of double returns in one year. They sought Rs 62,100 in investment for a motorcycle taxi and assured monthly returns besides double the investment amount in just one year but failed to deliver on the promise, according to the police.
"So far, 18 bank accounts linked to the company have been frozen. These accounts had a transaction of Rs 3,000 to 4,000 crores from various companies and people," Krishna said.
The arrested trio was working in the company and getting lakhs of rupees in commission for adding more people into the ponzi scheme, he added.
The SIT probing the case has also impounded over two dozen cars, including Range Rovers, Toyota Fortuner, Tata Nexon, Mahindra Scorpio, which were used by the company officials and costing approximately Rs 8.5 crore, he said.
Thebike-taxis have been operating in districts like Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur and Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh, while its network was also active in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, among others, officials said.
"The company had got nearly 7,000bikesout of which 2,000 were registered and the remaining unregistered," they said.
The company had used internet, social media, pamphlets, and motivators who would spread word about the scheme and encourage gullible people to invest in it. The investors would be further assured some extra bonus if they could connect more investors with the scheme.
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