₹400 crore ‘scam’: Absconding for weeks, key accused caught from Panipat
Abhishek lured hundreds of people to make investments in his company in return for hefty returns. However, he and his wife Niharika fled with over ₹400 crore that belonged to their investors.
On the run for weeks after his alleged scam worth ₹400 crore surfaced, the managing director of Prayagraj-based Niharika Ventures, Abhishek Dwivedi, was finally arrested late Saturday night from Panipat in Haryana.
A resident of Ballia, identified as Tikam Chand Jaiswal, was arrested in Noida for giving shelter to Dwivedi when he was absconding. The police presented both the accused in the district court here on Sunday evening following which they were sent to jail, police informed.
Three police teams were conducting raids in search of Abhishek for the past many weeks.
During questioning so far, Abhishek informed the police that Jaiswal, a close associate of a self-styled godman, had helped to hide him in a house in Panipat.
The case
Dwivedi had opened a real estate and investment firm in the name of his wife Niharika.
He lured hundreds of people to make investments in his company in return for hefty returns. However, Abhishek and his wife Niharika fled with over ₹400 crore that belonged to their investors.
Around 200 persons reached Shivkuti police station on June 6 and made a complaint following which Shivkuti police lodged an FIR against Dwivedi, his wife Niharika, Abhishek’s father Om Prakash and his mother-in-law Nirupama.
In this case, the police have, so far, arrested and sent to jail three people including Abhishek’s father OP Dwivedi, mother-in-law Nirupama and Niharika’s driver.
Confirming the development, the station house officer of Shivkuti police station Sanjay Prasad Gupta said letters had also been forwarded to the registrars of Lucknow, Delhi, Prayagraj and many deputy registrars of different tehsils in a bid to stop the accused from selling their properties as part of the crackdown against them.