HNI investments through Puri under Gurgaon police scanner

In a move that could unearth a bigger trail of black money, the Gurgaon police is now investigating investments made by around 20 high networth individuals (HNIs), apart from the Hero Group, who invested in various schemes through Citibanks?s employee Shivraj Puri.

The police suspects foul play by such HNIs, who have not yet voiced their complaint in spite of the fact they were duped by Puri who lured them into investing into fraud schemes that would promise an unusual return of 18%. It suspects that around Rs 200 crore has been put in such schemes through Puri.

Around 20 benami accounts in the Citibank?s Gurgaon branch have been frozen and the police is now probing around 15 such accounts to seek trail of funds. ?Now we are investigating into the investments made by HNIs through Puri into fraud schemes. The names would be disclosed within a week,? said Guragon DSP Vikas Arora.

The police is also suspecting routing of funds into other markets apart from stocks and doesn?t rule out hawala transactions. ?We would seek help from ED for investigating ?into the money trail as we suspect flight of money into activities other than stocks,? he added.

The police would also interrogate higher ups in the Bank branch in Puri?s line of command to ascertain as to why the bank took so much time to lodge a police complaint when Puri has been marketing such schemes for more than a year. The police suspects that the senior management of bank is involved in the scam as it is a tough task on Puri?s part to forge bank documents for selling schemes to corporates and HNIs.

Since the entire Citibank episode involved huge amounts of illegal money transfer from the accounts of Puri and his relatives into brokerage companies for buying equities and other financial instruments, the role of Sebi in the investigation is justified.

?Sebi?s cooperation will help us crack the riddle faster,? Gurgaon police commissioner SS Deswal said. Among other things, the Sebi team may try to figure whether the funds were invested in share price rigging or manipulation, he said.