JAMMU: Wanted in infamous Rs 8 crore Vikrant Finance Company scam, the main accused Kewal Koul, son of Amar Nath, resident of Ward No. 07, Rajouri, has been arrested on Friday after eight months long chase.
In 2014, the Crime Branch wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police had registered FIR 19/14 under Sections 420, 406, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120-B, RPC against the owners of “Vikrant Finance Company.”
Jammu Crime Branch SSP Mubassir Latifi, said, the Vikrant Finance Company was opened 1994-1995 at Rajouri. However, in 2012, the company turned defaulter and the four accused persons refused to pay/liquidate the public deposits amounting to Rs. 8,83,03,977 which belonged to the innocent depositors.
This finance company was opened by the accused persons under a notion that their company is registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Registrar of Companies.
Thereafter, the company started accepting deposits from the public after alluring them of high rate of interests and also advanced loans to different borrowers but when the company turned defaulter and bankrupt, the accused persons started harassing the borrowers and the depositors on one pretext or the other and closed their establishments after duping the innocent depositors of their hard earned money running in crores.
During the course of investigation, it was found that accused persons namely Kewal Koul, Rakesh Kumar, son of Surinder Kumar, resident of Ward No. 9 Rajouri, Ashwani Kumar, son of Ved Vyas, resident of W. No.7 and Kamal Kumar Gupta, son of Bhagat Ram, resident of W.No. 12 Rajouri established the finance company under the name and style “Vikrant Finance Company” in the year 1994-95 with their office at main market Rajouri town without any authorization/registration from the Reserve Bank of India and started accepting deposits from the innocent depositors illegally after alluring them of high rate of interest as compared to public sector banks. In 2012, the company turned defaulter and the accused persons refused to pay Rs. 8,83,03,977 to the depositors. SSP Crime Branch, Jammu, Mubassir Latifi said that so far an amount of Rs. 91.46 lakhs has been recovered and seized by the Crime Branch but after the arrest of the main accused, efforts are being made to recover the remaining amount of money and arrest the remaining accused persons. The complaint in this case was lodged with the CB through RBI.