The Mumbai Police on Friday informed the Bombay High Court that it was awaiting the threat perception report in the Torres Ponzi scheme case and would act accordingly on alleged whistleblower, CA Abishek Gupta’s plea for police protection.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Neela K Gokhale was hearing the Chartered Accountant’s plea seeking police protection claiming that he is a vulnerable witness and had a threat of “being eliminated by those responsible for the scam.”
Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde representing the Mumbai Police informed the bench that its Additional Commissioner of Police ( Protection and security) was awaiting the threat perception evaluation report. Once the same is received, the Police will act accordingly on Gupta’s application seeking police protection, the lawyer said.
The court also permitted the petitioner to make probing agency Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police as party respondent to the case and issued notice to EOW seeking its response during next hearing.
Gupta, in his plea filed on January 8 also sought that investigation in the case be handed over to Crime Investigation Department (CID) or Special Investigation Team (SIT) for effective investigation of the fraud and to report on the progress of the probe to the HC.
The Mumbai Police on January 6 registered an FIR stating that the fraud amount was Rs. 13.48 crore from 66 investors.
The Torres brand, run by Platinum Hern Pvt Ltd, has allegedly floated multiple schemes offering weekly interests, around 500% annual interest on investments and investors were allegedly lured with incentives and expensive gifts. The FIR claimed that more than 1.25 lakh individuals invested money and the fraud amount can go up to Rs. 1, 000 crore.
One Tausif Reyaz alias John Carter, the alleged Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Platinum Hern claimed himself to be a whistleblower along with CA Gupta and director Sarvesh Surve and claimed they collected evidence of the financial irregularities. The police are investigating the claims made by alleged whistleblowers Gupta and Reyaz.
Gupta, through advocate Priyanshu Santosh Mishra claimed that he was introduced to the firm by one of its directors. He said that while doing the company’s auditing work, he came to know about the ‘massive fraud’ and ‘non-compliances’ and informed the Director about discrepancies in the company’s accounts.
Gupta further claimed that he was called to the firm’s office in Lower Parel, where three Ukrainian nationals intimidated him and he was offered a bribe of Rs. 5 crore to not disclose it to the public or else they would kill him. Thereafter, he made a complaint to the N M Joshi Marg police station, but the same was not allegedly accepted.
The Court sought police’s response and posted the matter to Monday, January 13.
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