Mumbai/Bhopal, Jul 25 (IANS): In a significant move, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has directed the Mumbai Police to issue a Lookout Circular (LOC) against a missing Mumbai couple, the alleged masterminds of a mega-fraud case running into several hundreds of crores of rupees, here on Tuesday.
The development came soon after the Mumbai Police lodged a FIR against the trickster couple – Asheshkumar S. Mehta and his wife Shivangi Lad-Mehta – based on a complaint by Shiv Sena Deputy Leader Krishna Hegde, an ex-MLA.
"This morning, I called on the CM and apprised him of the entire issue, how the Mumbai Police have taken steps to free a total of Rs 165-crore of the accused in their bank account and a trading platform," Hegde said.
Taking serious note of the issue, Shinde called up the Special Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti and instructed him to initiate the necessary steps for a LOC against the absconder Mehta couple, Hegde told IANS.
Simultaneously, in Madhya Pradesh, the Shivpuri Police Station IO Dhanendra Singh Bhadoria said on Tuesday that "their probe against the Mehtas has not thrown up any prima facie evidence to substantiate allegations of their involvement in a drugs case".
"However, the Shivpuri Police investigations are still underway and search operations are being carried out. The LOC issued against the suspects (Mehta couple) is still maintainable and we are vigilant," Bhadoria added.
Hegde said that the duo ran a stock brokerage, Bliss Consultants, from Goregaon, and the pan-India fraud came to light when the Shivpuri Police in MP nabbed a drug courier of Thane.
After their bail was rejected by a MP court, the Mumbai Police approached Kotak Mahindra Bank and Zerodha, a Bengaluru-based trading platform through which the Mehtas operated.
So far, with the efforts of SCoP Bharti, Additional CoP Paramjit Dahiya and DCP Krishnakant Upadhyay, the Mehtas' accounts with Rs 160 crore was frozen and also another Rs 4.50 crore with Zerodha.
Police investigators here suspect that the Mehtas may be involved in multiple rackets including narcotics, ponzi schemes, digital currency, share-trading, etc, operating quietly from their posh flat in a Goregaon skyrise, which is now locked.
The low-profile Mehtas allegedly conspired to execute a Rs 300-crore racket but after the MP Police cracked the whip in early-June, they suddenly 'disappeared', and may have sneaked abroad.
The MP Police teams had rushed to Mumbai twice (June 13 and June 16) to nab them after their names were spilled out by a suspected drug-peddler Nissar Zubair Khan of Mira Road (Thane) – arrested with a packet of Mephedrone drug worth Rs 17 lakh in early-June.
However, the Mehtas' lawyers have claimed that their clients are being framed in the case and had sought time to submit details sought by the MP Police.
The Mehtas have managed to transfer a staggering Rs 174 crore of the ill-gotten money and then went off the police radars before the MP Police LOC was issued.
The Mehtas had provided fake names, phone numbers and other details to the Goregaon society where they lived but their bank records indicated they have cleaned out nearly Rs 174 crore from their account to other multiple accounts, which are being probed now.