Constant beeps cut into the discussion. Sameer Atar reasons himself to inspect his phone, as he has actually been doing every other minute over the previous 20 minutes. “I am now used to these calls from unknown numbers. It is another loan recovery agent,” he said with a resigned sigh.
Nearly 100 such calls filled with risks and abuses, aggressive healing representative sometimes intruding unannounced in their houses, legal notifications from banks and non-banking monetary business (NBFCs) and even the periodic scuffle — this is what a typical day resembles in the life of over 250 “profile investors” such as Atar, the majority of them IT specialists.
These people, who had troubles in getting loans from banks owing to wage cuts throughout the pandemic or were having a hard time under the stress of charge card financial obligation or personal loans, were offered on the pledge of fool’s gold by a company promoted by the suave Selva Kumar Nadar. His business, Ashtavinayak Investment, stands implicated of assisting in personal loans, varying from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1 crore per individual, from around 30 banks and NBFCs — all growing out of control to about Rs 300 crore.
Barring the odd misstep, Atar said, all was hunky-dory till completion of October 2022. In February, the financial investment company’s trendy workplace in the upmarket Nucleus Mall in Pune Camp was sporting a lock and Nadar was in the wind. Then came the deafening knocks from healing representatives.
Atar, who operates in the accounting department of a personal company, is amongst over 250 individuals who have actually approached Pune Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to grumble that they had actually been defrauded by Ashtavinayak Investment. Nadar has actually because been formally stated an absconder.
“I come from a very poor family. My parents still stay in a slum in Ramoshi Ali. I stay in a rented flat with my wife and three children. I got drawn into the Ashtavinayak scheme because I was desperate to get rid of my credit card and personal debts, which were the result of a friend using my cards and then turning his back on me,” Atar included.
In June 2021, a telecaller approached Atar with the deal to clear his charge card loans. From here, Atar’s story followed the very same trajectory as the other financiers captured up in the riptide of Nadar’s con: register to end up being financiers in the company’s activities with 12 percent returns; let the company make an application for bank loans on their behalf; move the loan totals up to Ashtavinayak’s accounts; get routine corresponded month-to-month instalment (EMI) payments — for a while. From October 2022 onwards, according to plaintiffs, the EMI payments ended up being irregular, even as Nadar assured to “fix things”. Instead of repairing the concern, 39-year-old Nadar brought the shutters down on Ashtavinayak Investment in February and vanished.
“I spend most of my time speaking to recovery agents. Once I did not pick up their call, so they turned up at my parents’ house and created a ruckus. Now I take every call and explain my situation to them honestly,” said Atar. “When I speak from the heart, they listen patiently. But they return to the question: ‘When are you going to arrange the money’. I have no answer.”
Atar, who makes Rs 60,000 monthly, owes 6 banks an overall of Rs 58 lakh. He said the EMI for these loans concerns Rs 1.3 lakh. In the 20 minutes The Indian Express invested with Atar at his third-floor flat in Pune’s Hadapsar, he missed out on 12 calls, all from healing representatives.
Nadar assured to repair the concern however he shut the business in February and vanished.
Loopholes in the system
EOW authorities have, because the concern was given their notification, released all available resources to this case.
“At the moment, we are recording the statements of these investors and pursuing various leads to locate Nadar,” said Assistant Police Inspector Mayur Vairagkar, the examining officer.
He included that Nadar’s cellular phone was discovered disposed of in Khopoli, about 80 km from Pune city, a couple of weeks earlier which the laboratory is attempting to recuperate details from it.
However, this case has actually come up with a number of crucial concerns — generally about the possible collusion in between the company and the banks, because the latter paid out numerous personal loans to the very same candidate without inspecting their credit rating or monetary status and permitted a financial investment company to press the documents through for these loans.
EOW authorities said they had actually looked for information from the banks associated with providing these loans. According to bank authorities, Nadar’s company made use of the hold-up in upgrading of records by CIBIL, the credit details system on which banks rely. This hold-up permitted Ashtavinayak Investment to promote fast and numerous loan disbursals, a few of which were provided within a day or 2 of the documents being submitted.
“Since banks were busy due to the financial year-end, they could not provide the information we had sought. We have sent them a reminder. Hopefully, the investigation will move ahead on that front this month,” included Vairagkar.
A bank authorities said, “Just as we do in all cases of overdue and defaulted (loans and credit card debt), we have started recovery proceedings from clients involved in this case too.”
However, EOW authorities said they would not have the ability to offer any relief to Nadar’s victims from the loan healing procedure.
“We are investigating a case of financial fraud. To deal with bank recovery procedures, the investors should take the help of lawyers and deal with that issue separately,” Vairagkar said.
Apart from risks over healing of loans, life after work for the majority of Ashtavinayak’s defrauded financiers focuses on checking out the EOW workplace to examine the status of the case, talking to attorneys on legal action or relocations by rely on wage accessory and supporting other victims.
‘They manhandled me, my wife’
In north-eastern Pune’s Dhanori, 50-year old Nishant said he patiently fended healing calls from numerous banks for a number of weeks till the representatives began abusing him in “filthy language”.
“I was shocked at the language. I told them that they could not be from the bank. When I asked them to share their names, they refused. When I asked for an ID, they shared the ID card of another bank employee. Finally, I decided to approach the police,” said Nishant, who operates at a personal company.
Adding that his spouse has orthopaedic concerns, while he struggles with diabetes, he continued, “Apart from personal loans worth Rs 40 lakh that the firm applied for in my name, I had invested Rs 24 lakh from my savings in the company. That amount is also gone. I earn about Rs 35,000 and spend most of it on rent, medicines and groceries. I had to borrow money from friends and acquaintances just to get by this past week. My wife and I have stopped going to private hospitals because we can’t afford them anymore. I wonder what will happen to my wife if something happens to me.”
Ravi Gaikwad, another “profile investor” from Dighi, which is on the city’s borders, declared the bank healing representatives “really crossed the line” in his case.
“A few weeks ago, my wife and I were manhandled by three recovery agents who had come on behalf of the credit card department of a private bank. They landed at my house early in the morning and demanded that I pay my dues immediately. When I told them that I was unable to pay up, they asked me to accompany them to the police station. When I asked them to show me a letter or an ID card, things turned ugly,” declared the networking engineer.
“They manhandled my wife and me, abused us and created a ruckus in the society. They left after our neighbours intervened. After the incident, I went to the police station and submitted a complaint. Since I did not know their names, I went to the bank for information on them and managed to get the name and number of one of the agents. However, I did not pursue the case because that would have meant spending extra time on it. That would have affected my work,” he said.
Gaikwad, who makes Rs 80,000 a month, had an existing EMI of Rs 50,000 on a home loan when he ended up being a “profile investor” with Ashtavinayak. This brand-new position included 6 more personal loans amounting to Rs 65 lakh or an EMI of Rs 1.9 lakh.
“In 2022, I was persuaded to hand over four credit cards to Ashtavinayak in return for a Rs 5-lakh loan that I needed but was unable to get. Ashtavinayak used my cards and ran up debts of Rs 10 lakh but did not give me the promised loan. Now I am left with this outstanding debt as well,” he said, including that these loans were different from the loan of Rs 65 lakh.
Stating that he gets “about 60 calls from banks each day, which goes up to about 100 from the 15 of each month — with each bank making five to 10 calls a day”, Gaikwad said, “Since these calls affect my work and I do not want to lose my job, I keep my phone off during office hours. However, some recovery agents have started calling on my wife instead.”
According to a number of plaintiffs, legal notifications from banks and non-banking monetary companies have actually begun to accumulate, with risks of action versus under Section 136 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (dishonoured cheques) and Section 25 of Payment and Settlement Systems Act (dishonouring an electronic payment). Some of these notifications, they included, have actually likewise threatened to connect their incomes to recuperate the loan quantities.
The creation behind the fraud
According to the Ashtavinayak Investment website, Nadar developed his financial investment consultancy in 2009, not long after completing his research studies from Pune and Mumbai. He was likewise associated with share market training and banking consultancy. In 2017, he moved his workplace to the tony Nucleus Mall. That very same year, he wed a lady he understood from his college days in Pune. Before he moved to another apartment or condo in the very same real estate society with his spouse and kid in 2015, he stuck with his mom in a 3-BHK (bed room, hall and kitchen area) apartment or condo in Kondhwa for a long period of time. While Nadar, his spouse and kid are on the run, his mom’s apartment or condo is empty.
At his eighth-floor workplace, Nadar frequently informed his defrauded customers that he ran a training class on share marketing and ran a number of women’ hostels. Claiming that he would provide 6 to 12 percent go back to his customers on the quantity invested, Nadar would carry out notarised contracts with these financiers which, the cops now said, had no legal worth as the business design was prohibited.
The Indian Express has actually verified through website sees that the majority of his businesses were either long defunct or decoys. The cops have actually sealed an apartment or condo owned by Nadar in Pune’s Magarpatta worth Rs 4.6 crore. They are likewise verifying the ownership of another flat in Kondhwa, where he stuck with spouse and kid.
With no relief in sight, Atar said, “We are hoping that the state government, investigating agencies and bank authorities take a sympathetic view of our situation and help us.”
