Mumbai EOW arrests director of a Pharma company

MUMBAI: The city economic offences wing (EOW) arrested the director of a pharma company for allegedly duping investors to the tune of Rs 29.31 crore. During the investigation the police seized several properties belonging to the firm and its directors valued over R 50 crore.
Police arrested Giriraj Varghese, who originally belongs to Himachal Pradesh, three days ago."He was a full time director at M/s Ankur Drugs and Pharma Pvt Ltd., and with the help of other directors he cheated unsuspected investors. The complaint was first registered with the Amboli police station where 142 investors approached the police and said that they were promised high returns on their investment for a year. The cheating amount then was Rs 56.42 lakh. However, after maturity of the investment the firm did not give any return nor it returned the principal amount of the investors. It had promised the investors that their money would be invested in pharma companies and they would earn huge profit," said a police officer.
Varghese was arrested on Saturday when he was on his way to meet someone at Bhoiwada court. "We have been trailing him and finally picked him up from near the court," said the officer. The case was for a thorough investigation transferred from the police station to the EOW. "During probe, the EOW found that there were more than 5,803 investors who invested over Rs 29.31 crore. The EOW recorded the statements of 69 witnesses in the case and arrested Varghese," said police.
The police have seized two offices and a flat worth Rs 50.70 crore belonging to the accused and the firm. The accused had invited investment through putting advertisements in newspapers. Most of the investor are middle class people who invested either their pensions or savings in the firm. "We will soon be making more arrests in this case," said a senior police official. The accused have been booked under the stringent law, Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) act.