Ahmedabad: The Zonal office of Enforcement Directorate (ED), has uncovered a major stock market investment fraud in Gujarat in which investors were allegedly duped of crores of rupees by being promised unrealistically high returns.

The scam surfaced after investigators traced the defrauded funds to assets such as gold, silver, cash, and immovable properties, which were allegedly purchased using the proceeds of the crime.

According to the ED, its probe revealed that a single SEBI-issued Investment Adviser registration was allegedly misused to run multiple unregistered stock advisory firms. This enabled the accused to collect large sums of money from investors without obtaining mandatory regulatory approvals.

During searches, the agency seized 110 kg of silver bullion valued at Rs 2.4 crore, 1.296 kg of gold bullion worth Rs 1.7 crore, 39.7 kg of silver jewellery, Rs 38.8 lakh in Indian currency, Rs 10.6 lakh in foreign currency, along with several property-related documents allegedly acquired from the illicit proceeds.

The investigation was initiated following an FIR lodged at Kheralu Police Station in Mehsana district against Himanshu alias Pintu Bhavsar and others. The complaint alleged that investors were enticed with assurances of high stock market returns, but the funds were never invested and were instead siphoned off for personal use. DeshGujarat