CBI files chargesheet against 'mastermind', 17 others in Uttarakhand chit-fund 'scam'

New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) The CBI has found that Rs 400 crore of more than one lakh investors were siphoned off in the Loni Urban Multi State Credit and Thrift Co-operative Society (LUCC) chit-fund "scam" in Uttarakhand, officials said on Friday. The federal agency submitted the findings in a special court in Dehradun on Friday, showing an elaborate financial deception that allegedly mobilised nearly Rs 800 crore through unregulated deposit schemes before diverting funds via a web of shell companies and layered bank transactions. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a chargesheet against 18 accused, including alleged mastermind Sameer Agrawal who has escaped abroad, under various sections of the IPC, the BNS, the Uttarakhand Protection of Interests of Depositors Act and the Banning of Unregulated Deposits Schemes Act. After nearly eight months of investigation, the agency has found that LUCC was registered as a multi-state cooperative society by one Vajid Khan at the Central Registrar of Societies in 2012. "The main accused, Sameer Agrawal, took over the management of LUCC in 2016 and got constituted a new Board of Directors. After taking over of LUCC by Sameer Agrawal, various un-regulated deposit schemes were run by LUCC through more than 50 branches located in Uttarakhand," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement. While a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the LUCC's functioning in the hill state was issued by the Registrar of Societies, Uttarakhand, in 2017, the operations were "illegally started" by Agrawal a year before in 2016, the statement said. "Since LUCC had no genuine business and no genuine income/profit, the maturity payment of deposits of depositors was being made from the fresh deposits being received from new depositors. Thus, LUCC was found to be running Ponzi schemes to cheat the common public of Uttarakhand," the agency alleged. The CBI probe has shown that the LUCC indulged in an "unprecedented scale of victimisation" of the public in the state, with more than one lakh gullible investors lured to invest in various unregulated deposit schemes. "The total investment/deposits made by these depositors is to the tune of Rs 800 crore approximately. Part repayments were made by LUCC to some of the depositors but the fraud amount is more than Rs 400 crore," the agency alleged. "The main accused, Sameer Agrawal, a resident of Mumbai, Maharashtra, was the mastermind behind the operations of LUCC and he controlled the management and decision making of LUCC. "He operated the unregulated deposit schemes through LUCC which collected around Rs 800 crore from the depositors of Uttarakhand. He opened the bank accounts of 10 shell firms in a conspiracy with Kishanlal Udaylal Jain and Pankaj Kushal Singh Jain for diversion and misappropriation of funds of depositors of Uttarakhand collected by LUCC," the statement said. "Investigation revealed that he and his wife, Saniya Agrawal, have absconded abroad. CBI has issued notices and circulars against them so that they can be brought back to face the legal process," it added. The agency said Shabab Husain, Uttam Kumar Singh Rajput and Dinesh Singh, important functionaries and office-bearers of the LUCC, have also been named in the chargesheet. It said chest managers of the LUCC -- Tarun Kumar Maurya, Gaurav alias Gaurav Rohilla and Mamta Bhandari -- who sent the depositors' money in cash collected by various branches to different locations and thereby, avoided banking transactions, have also been named in the chargesheet. One Sushil Kumar Gokharoo, in a conspiracy with Kishanlal Udaylal Jain and Pankaj Kushal Singh Jain -- all named in the chargesheet -- got bank accounts of 10 shell firms opened in Mumbai and the funds collected from depositors in Uttarakhand were transferred to these accounts, the agency said. These funds were diverted to hundreds of bank accounts through layered transactions, it added. The CBI has arrested seven people -- Tarun Kumar Maurya, Mamta Bhandari, Gaurav alias Gaurav Rohila, Rajendra Singh Bisht, Sushil Kumar Gokharoo, Kishanlal Udaylal Jain and Pankaj Kushal Singh Jain -- in connection with the case. All the arrested accused are in judicial custody. PTI ABS RC