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,...
- Four senior police officers will investigate the case
- So far 385 gullible investors have lodged complaint with EoW
By Dheeraj Fartode
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Economic Offences Wing (EoW) Deepali Masirkar has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly and speedily investigate the alleged scam committed by Wasankar Wealth Management in which thousands of gullible investors have lost their hard earned money. The scam had shaken the faith of entire investing community as Prashant Wasankar was always viewed as financial whiz kid, but after persistent default offences were registered against Wasankar and his associates. However, the slow progress made by crime branch in unearthing the scam and tracing out money, has invited wrath from aggrieved investors.
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| Prashant Wasankar arrested |
The ongoing legal battle also witnessed many twists and turns with Wasankar flatly denying any liability and on the contrary accusing investors with violating Bombay Money Lenders Act, took everybody by surprise.
DCP Masirkar, after studying the files, decided to give a new impetus to further investigation and constituted the special team with specific mandate to unearth all angles of the mind-boggling scam worth few hundred crores. The SEBI has already directed Wasankar to return the money to all investors within seven days.
The newly constituted SIT will specifically identify various investments made by Wasankar, find out direct beneficiaries and other accused involved in the scam.
According to information, Police Inspector (PI) Sudhakar Dhane, PI Naresh Pawar, APIs Pradip Lande and Yuvraj Patki are members of the SIT and DCP Masirkar is supervising the investigation.
It can be mentioned that the EOW had filed 20 thousand pages chargesheet against accused -- Prashant Wasankar, Maithili Vinay Wasankar, Abhijit Jayant Choudhary, Kumud Choudhary, Vinay Wasankar and three employees -- in MPID court. Till date, 385 gullible investors have registered complaint at EOW. This investors have put in Rs 101 crores with Prashant Wasankar who is now under Magisterial Custody Remand along with his brother, Vinay and brother-in-law Abhijit Choudhary on the charge of defrauding the investors.
The police have attached 21 properties of Wasankar till date and market price of the properties is Rs 16.5 crore. Wasankar had used accounts of Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), HDFC Bank, and co-operatives banks for various transactions. However, cops are still looking at money trail and possible persons and location where the maximum money was stashed. Sources informed that Wasankar had shifted the sum to unknown bank accounts or even outside country. As Wasankar came to know that police could book him, he had allegedly transferred the money in November 2013, sources revealed. Cops also believe that Wasankar might have hidden some documents related to transaction at unknown place.
It can be mentioned that Wasankar wealth management handled 4,000 demat accounts and 2,000 members. Many demat accounts were owned by the members. Cops believed that Wasankar collected money from investors promising great returns in shortest possible time and rotated money and used the inflow to clear his previous liabilities.
Due to massive publicity campaign and prompt repayment, during initial phase, thousands of people invested their hard-earned money with Wasankar. A majority of them were retired persons who parked their life-long savings. In 2012-13, flow of investors shrinked as two other companies using almost identical modus operandi run by Jayant and Varsha Zambre of J S Financial Services and Shree Surya group run by Sameer and Pallavi Joshi, went bankrupt leaving thousands in lurch. Here, Wasankar started giving excuses to investors as cheques started bouncing for want of funds and finally he was booked by police in May 2014.
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