Pune newspaper agency owner, wife promised high share market returns, ‘dupe’ 4 fellow agency owners of Rs 1.84 crore

PUNE: A newspaper agency owner and his wife allegedly duped four other newspaper agency owners of Rs1.84 crore by promising them high returns on investments in the share market.A 43-year-old newspaper agency owner from Kalewadi lodged a complaint with Kalewadi police on Tuesday. The fraud took place between June 2020 and March of this year. The duo was charged under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318 (cheating) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of BNS.An officer said the complainant also works as a development officer in a cooperative bank and knew the accused through their newspaper agency business. “He was also aware that the accused was in the share trading business. In 2020, the accused approached the complainant and assured him of a good profit on his share market investments. The complainant handed over a total of Rs1.25 crore to the accused through cash and bank transactions. The accused returned Rs28.25 lakh but provided neither details of the shares purchased nor paid the promised returns.”Three other newspaper agency owners also invested money with the accused. “Collectively, they gave Rs1.84 crore to the accused. The accused and his wife induced the investors to hand over cash and transfer money online , but did not return the principal amounts or promised returns,” the officer said.