Kingpin of factory scam worth Rs 1.5cr arrested

Darjeeling: The Siliguri police arrested the kingpin of a velvet pencil manufacturing racket that robbed several residents of Siliguri of lakhs of rupees. The scam involved around 1.5 crore rupees.

After thorough investigation of the case, a police team from Siliguri led by SI Ashim of Panitanki outpost helped by the Rajasthan police conducted extensive raids in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Finally, Hemant Sharma, main accused in the case was arrested recently from Jaipur.

He was produced at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Jaipur and taken in seven days of transit remand.

The team along with the accused arrived in Siliguri on October 7.

The accused was presented at the Siliguri ACJM Court on Friday. He was remanded to police custody for further investigation.

A company had come up in Hakimpara, Siliguri that used to help people, mainly unemployed youths and housewives set up velvet pencil manufacturing units with the assurance that they would buy back the finished product. Lucrative business figures were projected as bait.

Soon, many youths and housewives fell prey to the scheme.

The company charged them amounts ranging from Rs. 50,000 to rupees one lakh each. In lieu, they provided machines for the manufacture of pencils. Initially, they even bought back the manufactured pencils but later stopped.

When the clients started complaining, the company closed down its Hakimpara office.

The owner also went missing. This raised suspicion and many lodged FIRs at the Siliguri police station.