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Updated: May 26, 2019 08:18 IST

In a multi-state operation, the special operation group (SOG) of Rajasthan police arrested 11 office-bearers of the Adarsh Co-operative Society Limited(ACCSL) on Saturday for allegedly siphoning off more than ₹1,400 crore of investors’ funds.

The raids by the special operation group were carried out in Gurugram, Sirohi in Rajasthan, Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Mumbai; 11 office-bearers, including the society’s ex-chairmen Virendra Modi and Kamlesh Choudhary and present chairman Ishwar Singh Sindhal were picked up.

The arrested accused have been identified as Virendra Modi (ex-chairman of ACCSL), Kamlesh Choudhary (ex-chairman of ACCSL) Ishwar Singh Sindhal (chairman of ACCSL), Priyanka Modi (ex-MD of ACCSL), Vaibhav Lodha (senior vice-president of ACCSL), Sameer Modi (CFO ACCSL), Rohit Modi (asst MD of ACCSL), Bharat Modi (director of Aditya Mega Project Pvt Ltd), Lalita Rajpurohit (Ex-MD ofACCSL) and Vivek Purohit (director in six companies of ACCSL).

Director general of police (DGP), SOG, Bhupendra Singh Yadav said the company was running Ponzi schemes, duping over than 20 lakh depositors. The Ahmedabad-based Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society had started its operations in 1999.

A first information report (FIR) was registered at Jaipur SOG police station against the society under section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by banker or businessmen), 420(cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468(forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using forged document as genuine), 477 (falsification of accounts) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on December, 2018.

“Prima facie in investigation it was observed that the deposits collected from the investors of the credit society were used for the benefit of a few members belonging to one family through two mediums. First medium was that the company invested in shell companies and firms and another was that Mukesh Modi did ex-gratia payment (sum of money paid when there was no obligation or liability to pay it) of Rs 270 crore in company of his son-in law and his wife,” said Yadav.

Mukesh Modi is managing director in ACCSL who was arrested by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in December 2018.

“During investigation it was found that that the Modi family and their aides invested 99% of the money obtained through 20 lakh depositors in 187 loan accounts of shell companies. When the accounts of Adarsh Co-operative Society Limited (ACCSL) were checked, it was found that the value of the properties of shell companies was shown multiple times higher than the actual amount. The properties were not even kept on mortgage,” Yadav said.

“No pledge form was taken from the shell companies,” .

The SOG director general of police added that these 187 accounts have outstanding dues of Rs 1468.22 crore.

In investigation, it was also revealed that in last three years around Rs 720 crore was transferred by Mukesh Modi to a firm identified as Mahaveer Consultancies owned by Modi’s wife and son-in-law.

The amount was transferred describing the owner of Mahaveer Consultancies as advisors. But when checked, it was found that no services were provided by the firm. Also and ex-gratia payment of Rs 270 core was done which is against company by-laws.

There are around 309 branches of the Adarsh Co-operative Society Limited in Rajasthan and around 10 lakh investors were duped of Rs 8,000 crore.