A woman was arrested by police on charges of defrauding hundreds of depositors to the tune of over Rs. 3 crore while her husband was absconding and evading arrest.
According to sources, the woman identified as Moakala said to be the ‘Director’ of Golden Life India with head office in Jorhat and branch office in Dimapur was arrested by West P.S. Wednesday from Titabar(Assam).
The husband identified as Nilomoni Borah said to be the Managing Director of the company, was however absconding.
Talking to Nagaland Post, employees of the firm and assistant branch manager (ABM) Dimapur, Temsuwati and branch development officer (BDO) K Z Barbhuiya said that the couple cheated 122 employees and over 1300 investors (Dimapur branch) to the tune of Rs.3,08,00,000 (Rs.3.08 crore).
According to the employees, Golden Life India claimed to be an “investment” and a “non-financial” company established in 2009. In Dimapur, the company had its office on the first floor of San-Tek apartment, Dhobinala Dimapur.
The modus operandi of the husband-wife duo was to lure people to invest their money in the company’s policy called “high return plan”. Under the scheme, an investor who paid Rs. 4500 would, on completion of 24 months get an assured return of Rs. 34, 200.
In this way, the policy (like other money schemes) attracted hundreds of greedy and credulous investors.
On seeing the success of scheme, the couple raised the investment amount to Rs.7000 in September 2010 though the returns remained the same (Rs.34,200 after 24 months).
Initially, some investors received their returns and that emboldened them to invest more money with some depositing more than Rs.20 lakh.
The investors were lulled into ecstasy through regular payments till January 2011. However, when the returns failed to come, the couple explained that it was due to various reasons. They then changed the mode of payment to half yearly then finally yearly.
It was revealed that initially payments were through cheques then later changed with introduction of a smart card policy called as “Reward Card” by which payments were made through Axis Bank Dimapur.
Then, the mode of payment changed to “account payment” where investors were promised that they would be paid through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT).
Again, when the “high return plan” was not paid, the duo changed the policy into recurring deposit (RD) plan named ‘Astha’ but did not pay investors on maturity.
When approached by aggrieved employees and investors, on December 11 last, the duo gave a written assurance that payment would be made in April 2012.
Again when they did not pay the money due, employees went to Titabar on April 23, 2012 and were informed by the wife (Moakala) that her husband had fled to Chennai on April 21.
The aggrieved employees then filed an FIR under West P.S. Dimapur after returning back on May 1 and a case registered on May 31.
On June 13, West P.S. personnel along with some employees went to Titabar where the wife was taken to custody.
Employees also disclosed that the duo had also set up offices in Kohima, Mokokchung, Tuensang, Zunheboto and Tseminyu besides other states like Nahar Lagun (Arunachal Pradesh) and Agartala (Tripura).
It was also disclosed that a case had been registered at Nahar Lagun P.S. (Arunachal Pradesh) against Nilomoni. When contacted, Dimapur police confirmed that the wife has been arrested in connection and detained in the women cell Dimapur.
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