The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday conducted searches in 5 different districts of Uttar Pradesh including Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Noida after it registered a money laundering case to probe the alleged Rs 3,700 crore ponzi scam case perpetrated by seeking fake social media 'likes' from lakhs of gullible investors by a Noida-based firm.
In a meeting held with Senior Officials of Income tax Department, the Uttar Pradesh Special task Force took forward several strategies and guidelines which will be followed in the investigation of the Rs 3,700-crore Ponzi scam. Both the departments had discussion with each other over the data recovered so far and the further proceedings which are needed to be carried out.
The agency conducted raids at the business and residential premises of Anubhav Mittal and others in Noida, Ghaziabad and Kanpur.
Incriminating documents that reveal assets worth crores of rupees of the accused were seized.
The search and seizure of the electronic data and equipment were undertaken by forensic experts of Forensic Science Laboratory from Lucknow.
STF officials said that they are now preparing a major investigation plan as more agencies have joined the probe.
"Soon after issuing an email ID to register complaint in the Ponzi scheme case, the police have received more than 4,500 complaints from
various investors, not only from India but from foreign countries like Nigeria and Mascot. Ten investigation teams of STF have been formed whowill investigate the case and will undertake further proceedings," said Raj Kumar Mishra, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Special Task Force.
"We are also investigating company's bank accounts and will also look into the involvement of the bank officials if any," added Mishra.
Officials said that the modus operandi was simple as money was collected from a large number of customers and payment made to a few of them.
"Officials also changed their accounts to four different banks as customers had started lodging complaints and had also mentioned the bank account numbers. They changed domains as well as bank accounts to avoid identification. All accounts and websites have been frozen," an STF official said.