A 48-year-old Managing Director of a construction company, carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head, was arrested from Mumbai for allegedly cheating around 500 investors of Rs 20 crore, police said today.
Ratan Lal Garera, who was declared proclaimed offender in more than 10 cases and evading his arrest in more than 50 cases, was apprehended from Mumbai yesterday, Sanjeev Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said.
"He had duped more than 500 investors of their hard earned money to the tune of Rs 20 crore," Yadav said.
He was earlier allegedly involved in cheating, defrauding banks and in circulation of fake currency. He was declared proclaimed offender in more than 10 cases and Delhi Police Commissioner has declared a reward of Rs 50,000 for his arrest.
During interrogation, Yadav said, he told police that he formed a real estate developer company M/S Alka India Private Limited, which was involved in construction of residential, Industrial and Commercial complexes and Infrastructure Development.
He projected his company's vision to provide premium quality residential apartments and commercial buildings.
"In order to entice investors, he promised the completion of all the projects on time and also projected that his company's mission was to achieve total customer satisfaction by synergizing professional skills with personalised services," Yadav said.
He allegedly gave an advertisement in leading newspaper regarding his new project near Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpith in Haridwar on 100 acres plot of land.
"The project gained huge popularity among the people. Garera started pre-launch booking for the project and collected crores of rupees from more than 500 investors. He neither acquired any land at Haridwar nor gave any plot to investors.
"When people started demanding their money Garera went underground and avoided meeting the people from whom he had taken money. Later, he was arrested in the case. After that he again went underground and never re-surfaced," Yadav said.
He also told police that he was the owner of a listed company namely H-Lon Hosiery Ltd, which sustained heavy losses in 1996-97 and it was closed.
"SEBI filed a case in Tis Hazari court against its Directors Garera and his wife Gunjan. Garera along with his associates were recently arrested by the State CID of Pune on charges of defrauding various banks of a whopping Rs 25 crore," Yadav said.
It also came to light the alleged involvement of Avinash Magan, Managing Director of the Haridwar based Yogi Pharmacy Limited in cheating cases involving Garera.
"Many cases of cheating have been registered against them in different states. Investigations have also revealed that the racket used to operate at various places including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Haridwar, Pune and Mumbai," he said.
