Cops arrest jewellery company owner, sons for duping people

Police arrested the owner of two leading jewellery companies ~ Nico Jewellery Palace Abhusan Pvt Ltd & Senco Jewellery Palace Abhusan and his two sons on Wednesday night for their alleged involvement in a multi-crore gold fraud.

The trio was arrested from their residences in New Alipore on Wednesday night on the basis of a complaint lodged by a customer who had been allegedly cheated by the companies after they had deposited money in various gold schemes.

The accused were arrested after they put on a drama by locking themselves inside the cupboard of their house. The three accused were produced at Alipore court on Thursday and were remanded in police custody till September 17. 

A senior police officer said that the accused were arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by a resident of Bijoygarh at Tollygunge police station on August 4. The victim had allegedly been duped by the jewellery companies who neither paid his money back nor gave any gold jewellery that they had promised.

Police said that the accused Arjun Sen and his two sons Aniruddha and Anirban altogether had cheated around 2,700 people to the tune of Rs 17 crores. The trio had induced people to invest money during 2012 in the name of attractive gold schemes like ‘Dhanbridhi’ and ‘Swarnatrishna’ promising the investors good return in terms of cash and gold. But they failed to provide the money or any gold jewellery after maturity of their schemes.

The investors put up demonstration outside their shops on Rashbehari Avenue after they had realised that they were cheated. There were a number of complaints against the accused.

Police were conducting raids for last few days to nab the culprits. Acting on tip-off the investigating officers conducted a raid at their house at New Alipore and arrested them. Police reached the house and found that the door was locked from inside. Nobody opened the door despite repeated knockings.

Police then broke open the door but some women opposed their entry into the house. Lady police officials were summoned and when they entered inside the room, the three accused had locked themselves inside a large cupboard. They came out when police threatened to break the cupboard.