Helped freeze absconding couple’s assets worth around ₹165 crore: Krishna Hegde

Former MLA Krishna Hegde has claimed that his personal efforts and persistent follow-up with police have led to several bank and stock-trading accounts with assets worth nearly ₹165 crore frozen.

The accounts belonged to a Goregaon East-based couple who had allegedly duped scores of investors, and were on the run, a press statement issued by Hegde on Monday said.

However, HT could not independently verify his claim.

When contacted, deputy commissioner of police (zone 9) Krishnakant Upadhyay said the Amboli police on June 26 booked the two - Ashish Mehta and Shivangi Lad Mehta -, who used to run a stock-broking firm Bliss Consultants. “A search is underway for them.”

A case under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code was registered, police officials said.

Umesh Shetty, a businessman who filed a complaint on behalf of Hegde, said he and the former legislator were cheated of ₹55 lakh.

“The couple lured people to invest in the companies listed by Bombay Stock Exchange. They would charge 30% of the profits as their brokerage. They also asked the investors to open an account on trading app DIFM with a promise that the latter would get a 2.5% additional earning over their investment every month,” Shetty told the police.

The complainant said he downloaded the app on June 2. “While Hegde invested ₹30 lakh in the firm, I invested ₹25 lakh.”

In his statement to the police, Shetty also mentioned reading a newspaper report a couple of weeks later that spoke about the Mehtas being involved in a drug racket. In the case registered at Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, the couple could not get bail, he said.

“When I asked them (the couple) to close my account with the firm I didn’t get a satisfactory response for some time. My friend Hegde’s request to allow him to withdraw his profits was also denied,” Shetty claimed.

Hegde claimed in the press statement that he personally met senior police officers such as special police commissioner Deven Bharti, additional commissioner of police Paramjit Dahiya, and Upadhyay.

“I also kept in touch with representatives from Kotak Bank and Bengaluru-based Zerodha, the trading platform used by the Mehtas. We have succeeded in getting assets worth ₹160 crore in Kotak Bank and ₹4.95 crore in Zerodha frozen,” he said.

Hegde appreciated the swift action by the police who worked with the complainant and the financial institutions.