Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
By Dheeraj Fartode
Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Crime Branch on Wednesday filed chargesheet against Prashant Wasankar and others booked for duping hundreds of investors in the special court. The chargesheet running into 4,025-pages against Wasankar Wealth Management Ltd and its directors has revealed the modus operandi of firm and how innocent investors were taken for a ride and offences under Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act were committed by all the accused.
The chargesheet has been filed against three accused -- Chairman of Wasankar Wealth Management Ltd Prashant Jaideo Wasankar; his brother-in-law and Director Abhijit Jayant Choudhary and Director Vinay Wasankar-- arrested by EoW which is probing the case.
The accused have been chargesheeted under various sections of the IPC and also under certain provisions of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act.
EoW had booked Chairman, Directors, Chief Executive Officer and three employees of Wasankar Wealth Management Ltd for allegedly duping investors to the tune of crores of rupees on May 9 on the basis of a complaint lodged by well-known builder Vivek Pathak.
On the basis of the complaint, an offence under Sections 420, 406, 506, 120 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 3 of the MPID act was registered against Wasankar. His arrest was a big blow for hundreds of his investors and admirers who viewed him as some sort of financial wizard with a Midas touch. Initially, a substantial number of investors mobilised support for Wasankar and termed the complainants as spoilsports, but later harsh reality surfaced before them and many of them quietly filed complaint against Wasankar.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Adl. CP) Sunil Kolhe told ‘The Hitavada’ that the chargesheet has been filed within 60 days after arrest of the three accused. Total 303 complaints have been received so far and invested amount is Rs 45 crore. Most of them were promised very attractive interest rates and guaranteed returns and as per papers submitted by complainants, they ought to have received Rs 90 crore from Wasankar.
“We are receiving two to three complaints against Wasankar everyday as investors are willingly approaching police against Wasankar wealth Management Ltd,” Kolhe said. He further said that the police is likely to interrogate business associates who are attached with Wasankar’s firm.
As more investors are approaching police, the case is getting legally stronger, said a legal expert. Sources informed that the investors who were till now hopeful of getting back their returns are now demoralised and approaching EoW sleuths.
The company claimed of dealing in financial planning, earning ideas, stock broking, depository, portfolio advisory, fixed income, life and general insurance, and mutual fund. It accepted huge investments from people not only from Maharashtra but also from other states by promising them hefty returns.
However, Wasankar and Choudhary while applying for bail flatly shirked all responsibility and had questioned the applicability of MPID against them. Infact, the alleged transactions were part of loan transactions for which promissory notes were issued in his individual capacity, Wasankar had claimed in his bail application while disputing prosecution theory.
Now, the chargesheet has meticulously reconstructed entire transactions of complainants, how money changed hands, portfolios created, interest/dividend was paid and how default started. This is only first chargesheet and many supplementary chargesheets will be filed in due course, prosecution stated.
Infact the investors were worried that Wasankar would be released on bail, if the chargesheets were not filed in time and had met EoW officials on Tuesday demanding filing of chargesheet and also expressed anguish over inordinate delay in trailing back the money, finding out movable and immovable properties purchased out of crime proceeds and inability of the prosecution to present a water-tight argument against Wasankar who is now trying to portray the investors as moneylenders.
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