Vadodara: Panchmahal police arrested chairman and director of ponzi companies from Lucknow on Wednesday for duping several investors from across the state to the tune of Rs 33 crore.Pradeepkumar Gupta and Pankajkumar Shrivastava, who are chairman and director of Real India Suraksha Nidhi Limited and Real Indian Mature Benefit Limited, were booked at Kalol police station last year on the basis of complaint given by 183 investors of Panchmahal alone who had lost over Rs 26 lakh. The duo was brought from their homes in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.Police said that the companies had created zones – Rajkot, Veraval, Ahmedabad and Vadodara – in state under which it had started branches in Alkapuri, Pratapnagar and Savli in Vadodara city and district, Halol, Kalol and Ghoghamba in Panchmahal, Gondal, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Junagadh, Una, Gandhidham, Kutch and Surat among other places.According to the victims, the companies had lured victims in January 2015 to invest through agents by promising them two per cent more interest than bank. However, the company closed its offices and branches in January 2017 without returning money of investors and agents.A police official said that the accused have siphoned off Rs seven crore through Vadodara zonal branches, Rs 13 crore in Ahmedabad, Rs 9 crore in Rajkot and over Rs 3 crore in Veraval.“The accused were absconding in connection with two cases registered against them in Uttar Pradesh too,” said a police official. During their interrogation, it was also revealed that the accused had incorporated 17 similar such companies across the country and have cheated several others in a similar way.

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