Jamshedpur, April 20: A Jadugora chit fund operator, whose alleged booty may surpass Rs 1,000 crore, was nabbed from Calcutta airport after being tailed on his Guwahati plane by plainclothes policemen.
Kamal Kumar Singh (35), who ran chit fund company Raj.Com in the mining town near Jamshedpur for almost five years before winding it up in 2013, and had been absconding since, had no idea that two policemen were his co-passengers yesterday.
Landing in Calcutta around 11am on Sunday, Singh, who was planning to go to Noida, was taken aback when accosted by a team of four East Singhbhum policemen with an arrest warrant, two who had flown with him and two others waiting at the airport.
Escorted by the team to Jamshedpur by road in an overnight trip, Singh was produced before the media today at East Singhbhum SSP Amol V. Homkar's office, in what is one of the most sensational arrests made by the district police in recent times.
When the case surfaced in 2013, East Singhbhum police were faced with a peculiar problem, unique in this online-viral era of over-information. No one had Singh's photograph.
So, the police relied on physical descriptions - "dark-complexioned, short and well-built" - by complainants. When tipped off that Singh had been staying in Guwahati, a four-member police team last week went there, and relying on the descriptions, found him and shadowed him for a week. Two of the team tailed Singh on the plane, two others are on their way from Guwahati to Jamshedpur while another two went from Jamshedpur to the Calcutta airport.
Born and brought up in mining hub Jadugora on Jamshedpur outskirts, Singh, by his own admission a Grade IV employee in Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), is accused of masterminding the wildly popular chit fun Raj.Com.
For over four years between 2008 and 2012, Singh gave investors monthly dividends of Rs 5,000 for every lakh invested. So, an investor who gave Rs 1 lakh got Rs 60,000 a year as dividend.
"The accused was a Grade IV employee of (UCIL). Since 2008, he used to run a chit fund racket called Raj.Com. The amount may run up to over Rs 1,000 crore. Most of his clients, whose number is yet to be ascertained, were UCIL employees. They deposited crores in the chit fund as they trusted Singh," said SSP Homkar.
To earn investor confidence, Singh paid regular dividends from 2008 to December 2012. At the peak of his business, Singh gifted cars to his agents for every deposit of Rs 1 crore.
Then, when he had earned enough, he sank his ship.
From January 2013, he stopped paying regular dividends and became increasingly reclusive.
"Finally, investor Ravindra Nath Singh, a Jadugora resident, lodged an FIR against Singh on September 25, 2013. Then only did the police come to know about the scam," said SSP Homkar.
Seven investors, including Singh, lodged cases against Singh and his six associates at Jadugora and Parsudih police stations.
By the time the police investigations unearthed that hundreds in Jadugora and Parsudih had been duped, Singh was nowhere to be seen.
It has now been ascertained that after he fled Jadugora, Singh stayed at Dhanbad, Noida, Jammu and Guwahati. His younger brother Deepak is still absconding.
Police have seized a mall and a hotel owned by Singh at Jadugora. Investigations revealed he owns properties in Noida, where he spent most of his time in the interim years.
SSP Homkar said they were trying to find out if Singh had links with other chit fund companies.
"We are trying to find out places where the accused might have pumped in his ill-gotten money. The I-T department is checking the scam's financial aspects," said Singh.
Singh has been forwarded to Ghatshila sub-jail this afternoon. "We have petitioned to the Ghatshila court for a five-day remand to interrogate Singh," SSP Homkar said.
