PUNE Prime accused in the ₹15 crore stock market scam, Vishal Fate, who is currently absconding in connection with the economic fraud, adopted the modus of promising ₹6 crore return over an annual investment of ₹10 lakh in one year. Besides, he also promised thrice the invested amount to small time investors in three months and gave returns to a few of them to generate goodwill among different types of investors,said officials.
HT spoke to Fate’s friend and other investors who said Fate wanted to be like Pablo Escobar, who led the Medellín Cartel.
According to Fate’s close friends, the selected investors who profited from Fate became his ambassadors wherein they brought more of their friends and relatives under Fate’s wings, investigators claimed. He hailed from Mangalwedha taluka and used to run cyber café’s where he settled permanently. Fate’s father retired as a professor from a prominent college in Barshi and he used his father’s image to buttress his credibility.
His close friend Deepak Babasaheb Ambare (37) recalled that Fate had two hobbies. “ He used to see cartoons and in between switched over movie channels. He used to tell us to see the documentary or movie of Pablo Escobar. Once he offered me ₹30,000 for an investment of ₹70,000. He said that one should live life like Pablo Escobar and showed us dreams. We have never seen that movie but now he is absconding. He is not my friend as he has duped hundreds of investors by promising unrealistic returns which people fell for and got duped on a mass scale.”
Ambare has also claimed that Fate had duped scores of professionals ranging from media persons, administrative officers, policemen and other high net worth persons.
Another investor Rajaram Shelke said “ I had borrowed money from Bajaj Finance and gave the money to him for investment purpose. He just gave ₹1 lakh and when I went to his house, his wife informed me that he had gone to the native place. Since then, his mobile has been switched off. Later we realised that he had cheated us.”
Based on Ambare’s complaint, the Barshi police have booked Vishal along with four of his family members under IPC 409, 417 and 420 and 34 and MPID Act 1999 section 3. More than 40 investors have approached the police with complaints related to fraud and cheating.
According to the police, most of the investors who had invested in the stock market had no knowledge about stock market trading and did not understand the nuances of the trade. Additional superintendent of police SP Himmat Sonawane said, “Fate told people that he will give them huge returns and people believed in him. He took huge amounts from investors and cheated them. Currently, eight teams have been sent to different parts of the country to nab Fate.”
Vishal Fate’s father Ambadas and brother Vaibhav have already been arrested in connection with the fraud. The other family members including his mother Alka and wife Radhika are absconding, said police.
Read More: Barshi stock market scam: ‘Vishal Fate wanted to become like Pablo Escobar, promised