The Hayabusa bike seized by the economic offences unit from Sunny on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Till four years ago, Sunny Priyadarshi (30) was a nobody.

His father was a roadside cosmetics vendor and his mother ran a small beauty parlour in the basement of Shakti Apartments near Boring Road roundabout. Today, he owns a Suzuki Hayabusa, a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Tata Safari.

A day after the economic offences unit (EOU) arrested eight people including Sunny, the kingpin, for involvement in an inter-state financial fraud worth crores, sources in the EOU told The Telegraph that Sunny’s habit of flaunting his riches did him in.

“His rise was phenomenal. Until five years ago, his lifestyle was like that of a roadside vendor’s son that he was. But in a very short span he had become a billionaire. The police had some clues on the gang and its modus operandi. Their probe progressed when Sunny caught their eye. The EOU made a note of him and he was watched for three months. Sunny lived life kingsize and loved to flaunt it. He could be seen zipping past on his superbike or in an SUV and going to the best spas and eating joints. He owns at least three flats in Patna and, the police believe, he has huge plots outside the state too. In fact, it was his love to flaunt his riches that actually nailed him,” a senior officer of the EOU told The Telegraph.

On Friday, the EOU took four of the eight people arrested, including Sunny, into remand for a week.

The EOU came across four bank accounts of Sunny. These have been sealed. Cheque books in the names of the deputy development commissioner (DDC), Gopalganj and sub-divisional programme officer of Danapur were recovered from Sunny. “The EOU has come to know about one Uttam Das of Barrakpore in Calcutta who is Sunny’s accomplice and helped him open accounts in nationalised banks on forged documents. An EOU team is Calcutta-bound to search Uttam,” the officer said.

During initial interrogation, Sunny said he was a student of Venkateshwar College in New Delhi. “He said he studied at a premier school in Patna and then went to New Delhi for his graduation. He had even enrolled for postgraduation but left it midway. He joined a steel company in New Delhi and worked there for some months. He came to Patna around four years back to work at a branch of the Delhi-based steel company.

“According to him, he used to go to SBI’s Patliputra branch to deposit his father’s money. There, he met Surendra Tiwary, a senior branch official, who introduced him to many people with whom he began his shady deals. On an average, the gang would deposit 50 fake cheques in different banks each month. Their success rate was 50 to 60 per cent,” the officer said.