Crime
ED arrests one in Rs 2,200 crore PMLA case
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
Mira-Bhayandar: Police Busts Illicit Liquor Brewing Den In Nallasopara
Mira Bhayandar: Further tightening their screws against illicit liquor mafia ahead of the assembly elections scheduled to be held on 20, November, the Mira Road-based central crime branch unit attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai (MBVV) police busted yet another massive illicit liquor brewing unit which was operating from a hillock in a dense jungle area in Nallasopara on Thursday.
Acting on a tip-off, a team led by assistant police inspector- Dattatray Sarak marched 2-kilometre-deep inside the jungle area located in the Dhaniv Baug area of Nallasopara (east) at around 8 am.
The team seized multiple barrels of hooch along with ingredients including 2,800 litres of fermented jaggery wash, 140 litres of liquor, chemicals and other manufacturing equipment collectively worth more than Rs. 1.42 lakh.
However, the den operator identified as- Prabhakar Bhoye and his employees managed to evade the police dragnet. The entire material and equipment were destroyed on the spot.
An offence under the relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prohibition Act-1949 for construction/works of any distillery or brewery and manufacturing intoxicants has been registered in this context at the Pelhar police station.
The consumption of illicit liquor which is unscientifically manufactured by using toxic chemicals like methanol and rectified spirit can cause deaths and other serious ailments including loss of eyesight. Further investigations were underway.
Crime
Wildlife Smuggling Racket Busted: Rare Snakes, Reptiles, Caged Orangutan Rescued From Dombivli House
Thane: In a significant operation exposing a wildlife smuggling racket, the Forest Officials rescued rare species of animals from a highrise in Dombivli. The officials raided an apartment in Palava City, Dombivli and found exotic animals including lizard, turtles, rare species snakes and other reptiles stored in the flat. Horrifying enough, the team found a monkey caged in the washroom of the apartment.
It was later confirmed that the rescued animals included Ignuana (lizard), an Orangutan and python. The operation was conducted by the Forest Range Officers from Thane and Kalyan along with a team from Manpada Police Station after a tip.
The officials did not find any accused present in the apartment at the time of the raid. A case under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 has been registered and a search for the accused is underway. Meanwhile, the seized species are handed over to a local NGO on a temporary basis for observation.
The video of the forest officials raid surfaced on the internet shows a boy opening the door of the well-kept apartment. After entering the flat, the officials gradually come across wildlife species stores in small cage, plastic boxes piled up in the passage and shocking enough an Orangutan in washroom at the end of the apartment.
As per the statement issued by the police, the teams raided the 8th floor apartment in B wing of Savarna Building in Palava City, Dombivli. In the action, the exotic animals seized as prima facie identified as python, ignuana (lizard), turtle, snake etc. The seized wildlife species, on temporary basis, are handed over to Birsa Munda- a local NGO. The pachanama, documentation and search for the accused is underway, it added.
Crime
Mumbai: Unidentified Body Of Man Chopped Into 7 Pieces Stuffed In Plastic Boxes Found Near Gorai Beach; Probe On
Mumbai: The dismembered body of a man, estimated to be between 25 and 40 years old, was discovered in several plastic boxes on the side road which goes to Gorai Beach in Mumbai on Sunday.
Upon receiving the information, police arrived at the scene and took the body into custody. It was later sent for a post-mortem examination. The body has not yet been identified, and a case has been registered.
According to police, on Sunday, a male body was found near Picxy Hotel, Babar Pada, Gorai, Borivali West. The body was cut into seven parts and packed in four plastic boxes. The deceased, believed to be between 25 and 40 years old, was wearing dark blue jeans and black shoes. His right hand bore tattoos.
A resident named Santosh Shinde, 55, from Mira Road, informed the Gorai police after learning about the incident. The Gorai police recovered the body from Shefali village in the Babarpada area.
A forensic team is currently investigating the case, and inquiries are ongoing in the vicinity of the incident location. Police have stated that the recovered body remains unidentified. The Gorai police have registered a case, and further investigation is underway.
A special team has been formed to investigate, and information is being gathered from CCTV footage and nearby police stations to assist in identifying the body.
A police officer said that the body was sent to Bhagwati Hospital for a post-mortem. “We can’t conclude anything immediately, as we are still investigating the matter,” the officer said.
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