Couple dupes hundreds, flees with crores at Mahim

Mahim Police are on the lookout for a couple and their daughter for allegedly duping more than hundreds of customer for Rs 3-4 crore in a  postal investment schemes.

The accused, identified as Ramesh Bhatt, along with his wife and daughter, worked as agents with the postal service, police said.

The trio took amount from over 100 people who had invested under various schemes since past several years, police said. The accused would take money from the victims saying that the amount would be deposited in their accounts with the post office in their respective account,said police.

In several instances, Bhatt had siphoned the money after the investments of the clients matured. In other instances, the accused would not pay installments in their account and keep it with him only.

The scam came to light after Tushar Pagdhare, one of the victims,  who availed one of the schemes through the trio, went to Mahim post office, only to find that the money was never deposited. Tushar said he had been paying the installments to the accused since past seven years for his investment plan with post office. 

"He used to fill the forms and take signatures on them. When we asked for the passbook, he used to show them handwritten passbooks, which he kept despite repeated requests to hand them over. Now, it's clear he was tearing these forms once we left. He used to keep the money instead of crediting the amount to our accounts. We realized it only now," said one of the complainants.

It was revealed only after the victim approached the Mahim police that the accused has duped many other people with same modus operandi. "Bhatt has been absconding since the case has been registered. We are trying to find them. Initially, there were only a few complainants. Now, more people are coming to us, claiming that Bhatt has also duped them. The amount could even cross Rs 10 crores," said a senior police officer.