Chit fund scamster doctor nabbed

Mumbai: The Thane police has arrested from the Thane bus stand a Jogeshwari-based doctor (64) who allegedly created a fake company and lured people to invest in chit funds, promising them higher returns. He later fled, causing a loss of several crores to the investors.

According to a police officer, the accused, Prithipal Sethi, established a company named TOBo Retail Market Limited on the name of a second person, Shivanand Mishra, without knowing the latter and by showing him as a director. He looted so many residents of Chattisgarh where he lived for nearly 15 years before fleeing in 2015. The Tumgaon police (Chattisgarh) initiated a search for him but he would change his identity from time to time.

A police officer said, “Lured by the promise of high interest rates ranging from 25 to 30 per cent, lakhs of depositors, mostly poor people in the state’s villages and small towns, deposited their hard-earned money with the company. Sethi allegedly siphoned off crores of rupees of these investors.”

The Tumgaon police station had registered the case after which it informed Mumbai and Thane police officers about Sethi, who had fled to Mumbai. Thane crime branch SPI Nitin Thackeray said, “We received information about the accused visiting the Thane bus stand. Our team immediately laid a trap and arrested him on the spot. We then informed Tumgaon police about the accused and they confirmed about his identity and other details. Tumgaon police will soon take him into custody.”