Gujarat CID gets custody of mastermind of Arbuda Credit Society scam

Himmatnagar/Mount Abu: The CID-crime of Gujarat police today formally arrested the absconding MD of controversial Arbuda Crediet Cooperative Society, which suddenly shut shop without paying back crores of rupees of depositors, mostly from North Gujarat, Rakesh D Agrawal, who had surrendered before police in Mount Abu, where the head office of the cooperative society led by him was situated, on March 9 this year.

The CID-crime team from Gujarat got his custody from Rajasthan police on a warrant in connection with one of the several cases of cheating lodged against Agrawal in the B-division police station of Himmatnagar city. The case was pertaining to cheating to the tune of over Rs 4 crore.

In February this year the home department of Gujarat government had after the directives from the CM office, handed over the investigation and supervision of 12 cases registered against the society to CID (crime).

Out of 12 cases against Agrawal and his aides, six were being investigated by the economic offense wing (EOW) of the CID-crime while the remaining were by local crime branch (LCB) of the respective districts. There were 8 main accused including some of the branch managers of the 50 odd offices of the society across Gujarat.
The complaints were registered with district police of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Ahmedabad rural and Patan. It is suspected that the society has over Rs50 crore in deposits in 47 branches in Gujarat.

The society was floated by Agarwal from Mount Abu and used to provide loans at very lucrative rates. It had higher interest rates on savings and recurring deposits. Agarwal was missing for past few months which started the panic across the branches. It got multiplied when the societies could not pay back the money when the depositors demanded it back. Another credit society floated by Agarwal had also shut shop.

On the other hand, Agrawal after surrendering before police in Mount Abu had said that his company was in great difficulty owing to cash crunch caused by demonetization in November last year. ‘After demonetization those who had taken loan from us did not pay back and we were in deep crisis. So many years of our labour (to groom the society) seemed to be going in vain. I became depressed and fell ill. I will pay back the money of depositors by either collecting the amount from the loan-takers or by disposing of my property,’ he had said.

Agrawal is likely to be brought to capital Gandhinagar tomorrow for investigation and interrogation.

DeshGujarat