Connect with us
Friday,18-July-2025
Breaking News

Crime

ED arrests one in Rs 2,200 crore PMLA case

Published

on

 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said that it has arrested Pavitra Pradip Walvekar, the promoter director cum CEO of Kudos Finance and Investment Private Limited, an NBFC company in connection with a prevention of money laundering case.

His arrest was made at Hyderabad by a team of ED officials. The probe agency produced him before a special court and said that he wasn’t needed for further interrogation. After this the court remanded Pavitra to 15 days judicial custody.

The ED has been conducting money laundering investigation against a number of Indian NBFC companies which are in the business of instant personal loans via mobile apps.

The ED has found that various fintech companies backed by Chinese funds have made agreements with these NBFC companies for providing instant personal micro loans of term ranging from 7 days to 14 days.

Ms Kudos NBFC ‘purportedly’ engages FinTech (digital lending partners) Companies as a Service Provider to assist in identifying prospective customers, verifying their eligibility, collection of information/documents, conducting due diligence, collecting pre-disbursement documents, arranging execution of the loan agreement, assisting with collections and recovery of principal and interest payments and attending service requests/product related queries for the retail loans offered by the Company.

Although it is projected that the NBFC is engaging Fintech companies for the above activities, but in reality they are allowing the Fintech companies to misuse the valuable NBFC license of Kudos.

“Ms Kudos has a paltry Net Owned Fund (NOF), but it is taking huge amount as ‘security deposits’ and then opening separate Merchant ID (MID) with payment gateways for each fintech app and then depositing this security in the MID of the respective fintech app,” said an ED official.

Kudos company has no mobile app of its own. It is not involved in the lending business at all. It has miniscule staff and is blindly allowing fintech companies to operate at the back of MOU between self (NBFC) and Fintech Mobile app companies. Thus, the entire lending operation is being done by the fintech app from its own funds. Kudos is only lending its license and the fintech apps are the ones acting like the real NBFCs and doing end to end micro lending and reaping majority of the benefits. In return Kudos is taking a commission without doing any due diligence or hard work.

“Entire decisions regarding fixation of interest rate, processing fee were taken by fintech companies and these companies were operating on the basis of instructions from Chinese beneficial owners. They capture customers’ data by getting access to their mobile contacts, media. In order to obtain more profits and to maintain high recovery rate, their call centres resorted to harsh recovery measures by using abusive language to entire phone list and contacts and misuse of social media privileges. Unable to bear the level of harassment, certain people have committed suicides,” said an ED official.

The official said that at the time of crediting the loan amount, the apps would deduct 15-25 per cent of the amount as processing fee and on the remaining amount they were charging very high interest rate.

“Fund trail investigation done by ED revealed that despite having NOF of only Rs 10 crore, Kudos circulated loans over Rs 2,200 crore in its name and it was entirely funded by 39 fintech companies who are now not responding to summons and have shutdown their operations and are absconding,” said the ED official.

In the entire business, fintech companies have gained a total profit of around Rs 544 crore and Kudos has gained a profit of around Rs 24 crore.

This entire arrangement is in complete violation of the RBI guidelines on NBFCs and thus, the entire profit of Rs 568 crore is nothing but proceeds of crime.

The source of funds with the fintech companies is also suspect and is being investigated.

Despite repeated opportunities, Pavitra Pradip Walvekar was not revealing the real identity and beneficial owners of the 39 apps with whom they were in business for more than a year.

The ED has alleged that instead of cooperating with the investigation, he had been making active attempts to obstruct the free and fair investigation.

Crime

UP Shocker: Mother Of 5 Children Dies After Beaten Up By 24-Year-Old Lover Over Breakup In Noida

Published

on

A mother of five children died after her 24-year-old allegedly beaten her up following a heated argument over breakup on Monday in Noida. According to reports, the victim has been identified as Neeraj. The police registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and arrested the accused boyfriend.

According to police, woman’s husband Satish, originally a resident of village Hathni Gud in Badaun district, works in a private company. He lives on rent in a house located in Mamura village with his wife Neeraj and five children. Neeraj had an extramarital affair with Arjun, a resident of village Sahpur in Shahjahanpur district who lived in the neighbourhood, for the past three years.

Arjun worked as a housekeeper in a private company located in Sector-59. Husband Satish was unaware of their affair. Neeraj went to meet Arjun in his room in the neighbourhood on Monday evening around 6 PM. Here, a fight broke out between the two about breakup. After the argument, Arjun physically assaulted Neeraj. During this, Neeraj became unconscious and fell to the ground.

Panicked Arjun rushed her to a nearby hospital, from where the woman was referred to Kailash Hospital. Seeing no improvement in her condition, the woman was referred to the district hospital, where doctors declared her dead.

After being alerted, police arrived and sent the body for the post-mortem. They also took boyfriend Arjun into custody. Family members allege that Arjun murdered Neeraj by strangulation.

According to police, the woman had married Satish about 13 years ago. The couple has five children. To educate the children, Satish brought Neeraj from his ancestral village to Noida about five years ago. While living in lane number eight, Neeraj became friends with Arjun, who lived in the neighbourhood. Gradually, the friendship between the two turned into a love affair. Arjun is 24 years old and unmarried.

Continue Reading

Crime

Mumbai Shocker: Stepfather Arrested For Murder Of Missing 4-Year-Old Girl From Antop Hill; Body Found In Colaba

Published

on

Mumbai: In a chilling turn of events, the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested Imran Shaikh, the stepfather of four-year-old Amaira Shaikh, in connection with her murder. The child had gone missing from her residence in Antop Hill on the night of July 14 and her body was recovered from the Colaba sea coast the next morning.

Police Suspected Stepfather Over Girl’s Disappearance

Amaira was reported missing by her mother, Nazia, who had gone to the Antop Hill police station to lodge a complaint. However, as the investigation progressed, suspicion grew around Imran’s role in the child’s disappearance. Imran, also known as Immu, had taken Amaira with him the night she went missing and had been unreachable since, with his phone switched off.

Body Found Near Sassoon Dock

Amaira lived with her mother and stepfather in the Bengali Pura area of Rajiv Nagar in Antop Hill. Nazia, who has been previously married twice, was currently in her third marriage with Imran. On the night of July 14, after failing to locate Amaira despite searching extensively, Nazia approached the police. The next morning, Colaba police received an alert about a child’s body found floating near Sassoon Dock. The body, later confirmed to be Amaira’s, was sent to St. George Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Initially, the Antop Hill police registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR), but with Imran absconding, suspicions deepened. Using physical identifiers from the missing person’s report, Colaba police confirmed the identity of the deceased. Cops now believe that Amaira may have been murdered and her body dumped into the sea.

Following this development, police intensified efforts to trace Imran. After going off the radar briefly, he was arrested on Tuesday. Authorities are now focusing on uncovering the motive behind the brutal crime and piecing together the exact sequence of events leading to the child’s death.

Continue Reading

Crime

‘Kicked, Punched’: Father-Son Duo Thrash Traffic Cops In Nallasopara After Being Asked For Driving Licence

Published

on

In a shocking incident on Monday morning, a father-son duo in Nallasopara East allegedly assaulted two traffic policemen in broad daylight after being stopped for driving without a valid license. The entire incident, which took place around 10 am near Sitara Bakery in Nagindas Pada, was caught on mobile cameras by bystanders.

According to the police, the boy was stopped during a routine check for not carrying a valid driver’s license. When questioned by constables Hanumant Sangle and Sheshnarayan Aathre, he reportedly called his father to the scene. The situation escalated quickly, with both the father and son allegedly verbally abusing and physically assaulting the two officers with kicks and fists.

The attackers have been identified as Mangesh Narkar and Parth Narkar, both residents of Nallasopara. Eyewitness footage shows the duo manhandling the police personnel in full public view, drawing strong reactions on social media.

The Tulinj Police are currently investigating the case. An FIR is expected to be registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, including assault on public servants and obstruction of duty. Officials confirmed that a legal process is underway and the footage is being reviewed as part of the probe.

Continue Reading

Trending