JAMMU: The crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir police, which filed a supplementary chargesheet against four accused in the Habalas e-commerce multi-crore fraud in Poonch district, has established that the prime accused had diverted huge amounts of money that was collected from people for his personal gains and booked apartments in Delhi.
The crime branch produced supplementary chargesheet-II against accused Tariq Mehmood, Murtaza Ahmed, Imitiaz Ahmed and Ali Mohd in the high-profile case of multi-crore fraud, the CB officials said. The accused were involved in duping gullible people of their money on the pretext of doubling it within three weeks time by inducement, they said. The preliminary chargesheet of the case has already been produced by Crime Branch, Jammu against six accused persons in the court of Sub-Judge Mendhar on July 20, 2019 followed by production of supplementary chargesheet-I against two more accused on April 4 last year. During the course of investigation, nine accused were arrested by the crime branch and recoveries were made on their disclosure in the form of both cash and kind, including 5 vehicles, besides seizing and sealing immoveable property in the form of shops belonging to the accused in Poonch.
In the supplementary chargesheet, it has also been established that prime accused Tariq has diverted a huge amount of money collected from people for his personal gains, as the probe showed it has been found that the accused booked a flat in Delhi for an amount of Rs 1.5 crore for which he has paid consideration amount of Rs 28 lakh to the concerned. Moreover, accused Ali Mohammad who was evading arrest had fled to Saudi Arabia and was arrested by the crime branch team after a lot of effort, it said. The chargesheet has been produced in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Poonch for judicial determination. As per the case diary, a written complaint was lodged at Mendhar police station in Poonch district by Abdul Karim and others, alleging therein that the above accused among the other co-accused induced and duped the gullible people of Mendhar and its surrounding areas by offering online shopping of quality products on huge discounts.
Along with the discounts, gift items and cash deposits were offered with the promise of doubling the money in three weeks time and thereby duping thousands of people of their hard earned money running into crores of rupees. Initially, the case was registered at Mendhar police station but being a case of immense public importance, the investigation was transferred to the crime branch and the probe taken up, they said.
In accordance, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted by Crime Branch, Jammu for an in-depth investigation of the case.
