PUNE: After several failed attempts over the last 20 years, a joint team of Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID), headquartered in Pune, and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police, arrested two accused directors of Galaxy Group who were wanted in cheating cases registered across the State.
The arrested prime accused and directors of Galaxy Group are Satishchandra Bhagawatiprasad Mishra (65 years) and Ramkrishna Premchand Dube (58 years), both natives of Khalilabad, Sant Kabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. They are wanted by the CID in 26 offences. They were caught on June 19 in Lucknow and produced before a court in Nagpur on Friday, which remanded them in police custody till June 25.
According to CID officials, they are investigating 26 offences registered against the Galaxy Group of companies. Cases were registered against the group in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The directors were absconding for past 20 years.
Former Maharashtra ATS Chief Atulchandra Kulkarni, who took charge of the State CID last month, requested ADG Asim Arun of Uttar Pradesh ATS to arrange a joint operation to trace the absconding accused. A joint team arrested the two directors after continuous tracking of four days.
The next task of CID Pune is to detain the remaining absconders, Pramodkumar Ganga Pande, Ghanshyam Kalidas Pande, Maifatullah Khan, Rahefirdous Aaftab Siddhiki, Satendra Vashishthya Tripathi, all from UP.
The investigation was led by DIG (EOW) Jalinder Supekar, SP (EOW) Pallavi Barge, Add SP (Flying Squad) Narendra Gaikwad, Dy SP Vilas Bhosale, PI Yashwant Nikam, Head Constables Krishnakant Desai and Dattatraya Bhapkar.
WHAT ARE THE CASES?
- Galaxy Group of companies had five companies registered with Kanpur Registrar Of Companies (ROC). This company had 102 branches in India. In 1999, the company lured investors with high return schemes and misappropriated the collected money which was Rs 7.08 crore. All the directors absconded after closing the business within a few months. In Maharashtra, cases were registered in Wardha, Nagpur, Yavatmal, Akola, Washim, Bhandara, Amravati, Chandrapur, Beed, Latur, Thane, Kolhapur and Ratnagiri districts.
- CID Pune investigated all 26 offences and filed chargesheets. They found that all five companies were not registered with RBI as Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and were not authorised to collect deposits from investors. Properties worth Rs 4.86 crore were seized during the investigation.
