Nagpur: A vast racket of dabba trade or self operated private stock exchange allegedly involving the likes of some of the big names of Nagpur and aptly backed by few known politicians have been brought to ground zero in a massive search and seizure operations conducted by the crime branch’s economic offences wing (EOW) along with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday.
The raids were conducted at around 11 places, including the premises of Ravi Agrawal of L7 group of companies at Telephone Exchange Chowk and Ambedkar Chowk. Police said Agrawal was the kingpin in the entire racket and is now out of trace. The sleuths have registered eight offences at different police stations.
20 accused were found to have involved in the alleged trade, of which 13 including Ravi Agrawal were arrested by the end of the day. The raids exposed several thousand crores worth ‘dabba trade’ operating out of the city, with its network spread to other states like Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.
However, reliable sources told Nagpur Today that two very powerful Ministers from Nagpur have asked the city cops to keep them posted of all the proceedings. Sources claimed that the cops could be under pressure for political parties to dilute the charges.
No Squad Chief & Place raided Police Station
______________________________________________________________
01 API Pradeep Lande Kushal Kishore Ladhad’s S K Investments 1st Floor, Shriwardhan Complex,
Ramdaspeth, Wardha Road, Nagpur
02 PI R S Patil Pritesh Lakhotia’s M/s Atharva Securities
Opposite Lakhan Pan Mandir, Gandhibagh
03 PI Fulpagare Dinesh Sarda, Near Hotel Anil, First Floor
04 PI Madne Ravi Agrawal’s L7 Group, Near Mascot
Honda, Telephone Exchange Square,
05 PI G J Patil Gopi Malu’s J K Investments, Basement of
Jagat Chambers, Dr Ambedkar Square.
06 API Sanap Abhishek Bajaj, Honey Apartments,
1st Floor, above Somani Trading
Corporation, Dr Ambedkar Square.
07 API Chaugule Sachin Agrawal, Behind Nagpur Nagrik
Bank, Dr Ambedkar Square
08 API Atulkar Kanni Thawrani, Near TVS Showroom,
1st Floor, Near Gandhe Commerce,
Telephone Exchange Square
09 API Kalange Dinesh Gokhlani,
10 WAPI Jaipurkar Veena Ghanshyamdas Sarda, Sarda
House,Cement Road, Shivaji Nagar
A Massive CrackDown
Police have also seized materials, including cash Rs 4.25 lakh, more than two dozen computer and hard disks. The seizures are totally worth more than a crore so far. Several incriminating documents and records too have been seized by EOW sleuths.
EOW teams registered offences under criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy under Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with relevant provisions under Securities Contract (Regulations) Act, 1956, against Kushal Kishore Laddad and Veena Sarda at Sitabuldi police station earlier in the day before kicking off the operation. Officials of Sebi too were present with the crime branch squads for technical support, informed DCP, EOW, Deepali Masirkar, who supervised the action along with city police chief SP Yadav and Joint CP Rajvardhan. “After feeling the heat of various agencies in big metros, these illegal dabba trade racketeers had started spreading their network in tier-II cities like Nagpur. This link has been bared by today’s actions,” said Masirkar.
Laddad, representing Ramdaspeth-based SK Investment, had taken sub-brokership of JCL Securities, and was allegedly illegally trading in shares worth Rs 2,500 crores on behalf of Veena Sarda. Police said Kushal had initially approached the cops with a complaint that Veena had duped him to the tune of Rs 6 crores. During investigation, and following the guidelines of SEBI, it came to fore that Laddad too was part of the racket. They were dealing in stocks bypassing the stock market and evading security transaction tax of the government worth several thousand crores.
DCP, crime, Ranjan Sharma, in-charge of Addl CP post, said technical expertise was also sought from Mumbai EOW, which had earlier conducted such raids. “In future, other agencies like ED and income tax department may be informed as per the course of the investigation,” said Sharma.
Apart from the offices of Agarwal, Laddad and Sarda, police teams of API Pradeep Lande, detection wing in-charge inspector Ravindra Patil, API Pradeep Atulkar and others conducted raids at the premises of Pritesh Lakhotia (M/s Atharva Securities, Gandhibagh,), Dinesh Sarda (Quetta Colony), Gopi Maloo (JK Investment at Ambedkar Chowk), Abhishek Bajaj (Ambedkar Chowk), Sachin Agrawal (Ambedkar Chowk), Kanni Thaorani (Telephone Exchange Chowk) and Dinesh Gokhlani (Telephone Exchange Chowk).
API Lande said that offences have now been registered at Tehsil and Lakadganj police stations apart from the first offences at Sitabuldi police station.
Kingpin Ravi Agrawal of L7 group absconding, 12 others arrested for ‘Dabba Nexus’ in Nagpur