5,000 women swindled in investment scheme

Conman assures monthly returns of Rs 200 on payment of Rs 310, collects money and disappears

5,000 women swindled in investment scheme

Conman assures monthly returns of Rs 200 on payment of Rs 310, collects money and disappears

Who can resist an offer of a monthly returns of Rs 200 for a period of two years on making a payment of Rs 310 and getting three more people to do the same?u00a0 More than 5,000 women from Tathwade in Pimpri-Chinchwad could not. This investment scheme was floated by Vithhal Rukmini Mahila Gruhodyog, a small time company.
The man who collected the money from the women disappeared, leaving them with no option but to file a police complaint.

Taken for a ride: Dipali Ugale with the form she was made to fill up for
the investment scheme. pic/Navnath Kaple

The women approached the Wakad police chowky but were told to give a written complaint with the signatures of all those who had been cheated.u00a0 "There were names of four members on the pamphlet. I suspected something wrong and when I dialled one of the numbers the person claimed to be a resident of Vashi, Navi Mumbai," said Vaishali Kamble, a homemaker in Tathawade. "I asked my relatives there to check online if any such company existed and when he replied in the negative, I went there on Saturday and asked the women there not to become members."

Dipali Ugale, a grocery shop owner in Kalewadi Narhe Nagar, said she realised it was a fraud when she noticed that the office of the small time investment company in Tathwade area was shut on Tuesday. "When I realised the person who introduced himself as Dada Thite had disappeared, I personally went to the residence of the clerks who worked with Thite. The women said they had no knowledge about him but said that while going he had collected all the documents and cash."

The clerks said they had received application from many women for a loan, as the alleged conmen had asked them to pay Rs 500 with a promise that they will get Rs 50,000 after 40 days at a nominal rate of interest. Kamble said that many women from Kalewadi, Nigadi, Akurdi had been cheated in this manner.