Noida: A hundred motorcycles, five bags full of bank cheques and burnt computers were found from the head office of motorcycle taxi service Bike Bot, which is accused of duping 2.25 lakh investors of nearly Rs 1,400 crore, police said.
The Garvit Innovative Promoters Limited (GIPL) company in Greater Noida had come out with the multi-level marketing scheme "Bike Bot" and lured investors with a promise of double returns in one year, Gautam Buddh Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna said.
It sought Rs 62,100 in investment for a motorcycle taxi and assured monthly returns besides double the investment amount in longer run, Krishna told reporters. On Saturday, a search was conducted at Bike Bot's headquarters in Greater Noida by a special investigation team (SIT) of the Noida Police which has been constituted to probe the multi-crore ponzi scheme fraud, the senior official said.
He said the search was carried out following the interrogation of Bike Bot chief Sanjay Bhati, who had recently surrendered in a local court, amid growing police action on his company. "A hundred motorcycles, five big bags full of bank cheques, burnt computers and documents, and some unburnt papers have been found by the SIT from the head office after interrogation of its main accused Sanjay Bhati during police custody," Krishna said.
"It has come to light that he had deliberately burnt his office some weeks back to evade police investigation," he said, adding that further action was being taken. Bhati and other top brass of GIPL, popularly known for its motorcycle taxis, were wanted for cheating and nearly three dozen FIRs were registered against the firm in Greater Noida's Dadri.
He had turned himself in at the Surajpur court on June 7, after which he was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. Later, police had got his custody for interrogation in the case. The Noida Economic Offences Wing (NEOW) had earlier arrested Bhati's partner and Bike Bot's franchise head Vijaypal Kasana from a hospital in Meerut, officials said.
The bike-taxis have been operating in districts like Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur and Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh, while its network was also active in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, among others, the officials said. "The company had got nearly 7,000 bikes out of which 2,000 were registered and the remaining unregistered. About 2.25 lakh people have invested Rs 62,100 each in the ponzi scheme, the total amounting to over Rs 1,300 crore," the police chief had earlier said. "It duped several investors from various states who invested crores of rupees in the ponzi scheme".
"The company had used social media, pamphlets, and motivators who would spread word about the scheme and encourage gullible people to invest in it. The investors would be further assured some extra bonus if they could connect more investors with the scheme," the police had said.
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