Guwahati, Dec 16: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has intensified its crackdown on online trading frauds, filing five new chargesheets in separate cases against 18 accused, including 16 private individuals and two organizations – Upepithets Holdings Pvt. Ltd. (UHPL) and Brahmaputra Sanchay & Biniyog Cooperative Society Ltd. (BSBCSL).
These cases are part of a broader investigation by the CBI’s Guwahati branch into financial scams involving violations of RBI and SEBI regulations.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against three accused, including two private persons and a private company, namely Hemen Rava, director, Sankar Saha, manager, and Upepithets Holdings Pvt. Ltd., before the Special CBI Court Guwahati in case RC 16E/2024, which was re-registered by CBI Guwahati on October 22. This marked a crucial step in the ongoing investigation into large-scale financial fraud within the 90-day period of the accused persons’ arrest.
This is one of the online trading fraud cases that are being investigated by the CBI on the request of the Assam government. The instant case was earlier registered by Tezpur Police Station under FIR No. 533/2024 on September 4 against Hemen Rava on allegations that he was engaged in a financial scam in contravention of RBI/SEBI guidelines.
It was alleged that he induced general public to enter notarized loan agreements with promises of high returns on investments. He allegedly misappropriated the funds for his personal gains, thereby defrauding his clients, the general public, who fell prey to his scheme.
The investigation, conducted by the CBI has unearthed substantial material evidence against the two accused persons and M/s Upepithets Holdings Pvt. Ltd. Investigation has established that the accused were involved in orchestrating an illegal deposit scheme that solicited funds from investors under false pretence. They used deceptive means, including notarized stamp papers, to lure investors with the promise of guaranteed monthly returns of 6% and above. They cheated the investors and misappropriated the deposits for their personal gains.
Another chargesheet was filed against five accused including four private persons and a Cooperative Society namely Jiten Deka, the then chairman, Indrani Das, branch manager, Azara branch, Sanjib Deka, secretary, Himangshu Talukdar, chairman & Brahmaputra Sanchay & Biniyog Cooperative Society Ltd before the Special CBI Court in case No. RC 5E/2024 re-registered by CBI Guwahati on October 20. This case was originally registered in Azara Police Station vide case No.184/2024 on September 12 against Jiten Deka, Indrani Das & others.
The case pertains to deposits collected by Brahmaputra Sanchay & Biniyog Cooperative Society under the scheme name “Grihalakshmi”. The investors were allegedly lured with promises of substantial returns such as bonus / interest. Subsequently, the deposits were allegedly misappropriated by the accused persons.
It was revealed during investigation that accused Jiten Deka & other accused persons promoted unregulated deposit scheme of Brahmaputra Sanchay & Biniyog Cooperative Society. They participated in various meetings with agents/potential depositors and solicited deposits by promoting high returns along with agent commissions without any viable business model which allured potential depositors to deposit a large sum of their hard-earned money.
They made false promises of high return upto 15% annually through the unregulated deposit schemes. Accused Jiten Deka & others solicited agents/investors to the BSBC Grihalakshmi scheme (unregulated deposit scheme) where agents were offered commissions ranging from 4% to 7 % on the deposited amounts.
The CBI also filed chargesheet against four private persons namely Mainao Brahma, Dipankar Bhatta, Jyotisman Sarma and Sumit Barman before the Special CBI Court in RC 7E/2024 re-registered by CBI Guwahati on October 20. This case was registered after taking over investigation of Mushalpur PS (Baksa district) case No. 102/2024.
Investigation established that the accused persons viz. Mainao Brahma, Dipankar Bhatta, Jyotisman Sarma and Sumit Barman had entered into conspiracy and in pursuance thereof they were running an Unregulated Deposit Scheme with the intention to defraud the general public and then divert/misappropriate the hard-earned money of the general public to the bank account of themselves/ their family members/friends for personal use and for purchasing of landed properties, construction of buildings and purchasing vehicles etc. All the accused are in judicial custody.
The CBI also filed chargesheet against two private persons – Rishiraj Gogoi and Joy Modak in RC 6E/2024 re-registered by CBI Guwahati on October 20. This case was re-registered by CBI after taking over the investigation of Geetanagar police station case No 174/2024 on September 4. The chargesheeted persons were involved in running a stock trading business in the guise of their company “Go Millions LLP” formed to sell various cosmetics and other products. They induced general public to invest their money by promising them high returns by violating the guidelines of the SEBI/ RBI and thus cheated the public by misappropriating money.
The investigation established that the accused persons Rishiraj Gogoi and Joy Modak had entered into a conspiracy and in pursuance thereof, they made an arrangement to collect deposits from the general public by way of business through UPI/Bank Account and did not deposit the amount in any regulated deposit scheme. All the accused are in Judicial Custody.
Further, the CBI filed a chargesheet against four private persons- Sankar Kumar Biswas, Rofiqul Islam, Dinesh Ch. Ray and Niranjan Kumar Malakar in case No. RC 18E/2024 re-registered by CBI Guwahati on October 22. This case was re-registered by CBI after taking over the investigation of Dhubri police station case No 310/2024 on September 3. The investigation established that accused persons, namely, Sankar Kumar Biswas, Rafiqul Islam, Dinesh Chandra Roy and Niranjan Kumar Malakar had entered into conspiracy with each other and in pursuance thereof, they made an arrangement to collect deposits through UPI / cash/cheques from different persons for investments in the name of Titan Capital Market and did not deposit/invest/trade the amount received from the different depositors with any regulated deposit scheme. They cheated the depositors by collecting money from them for investments and did not return the said amount to them.
During the investigation, the CBI traced databases containing details of depositors who were deceived into investing in these unregulated deposit schemes.
