Stock Guru Scam hits Sikkim

NAMCHI, 28 June: The Sikkim Police SP [South] has called on victims of the Stock Guru India scam to get in touch with his office or with the Namchi Police Station OC with their complaints against the company or any other details they might want to share on the nature and extent of the scam.
The Police here, it may be recalled, has frozen one of the bank accounts [with deposited amount of around Rs. 10 crore] of Stock Guru India Ltd. which now stands accused of operating the banned prize chit-fund money circulation fraud.

SP [South], Manoj Tiwari, confirmed this today, informing that the fraud by Stock Guru came to light a few months ago with the arrest of is two agents in South Sikkim. Now, the Namchi cops have apparently unspooled the scam till the brains behind the scheme, its Delhi-base proprietor, Lokeshwar Dev. The main accused, however, remains absconding.

As per records at the Namchi Police Station, an FIR was registered on 27 August last year under Section 420 of the IPC read with Section 4/5 of Prize Chit Fund and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act and section 20 of Sikkim Protection of Interest of Depositor Act, 2009 against Stock Guru India Ltd. At that time, Lokeshwar Dev and Priyanka Dev were identified as the people behind the scam which was promising people 20% returns per month on investments.

According to the SP South, Lokeshwar Dev had claimed that he was a technical analyst in the stock market and the scheme and its usurious returns had lured many to invest in the company. Two agents working for Stock Guru in Sikkim were arrested and one bank account frozen by Namchi police.
Lokeshwar Dev had managed to get a stay on his arrest from Delhi High Court and had then run away with the deposits. The whereabouts of the couple remain unknown, but the cops have at least one bank account with Rs. 10 crore in deposits.
The SP has appealed to “investors” and victims of the Stock Guru India fraud to contact the Namchi Police Station OC or the SP South Office at telephone: 03595 263722, 94342 57362 (Mobile) and 03595 263726, 9733344400 (Mobile).
The SP has also appealed to the general public to remain wary of ‘investment’ schemes which promise unnaturally high returns

Sikkim Cong graft slur on Chief Minister Chamling

Gangtok, July 26: The opposition Congress today released a 108-page booklet highlighting the alleged corruption of the chief minister, five ministers and seven former ministers who had misappropriated wealth worth Rs 113 crore between 1994 and 2009.

Around 40 pages of Sikkim Mahaloot, the booklet, are on chief minister Pawan Chamling. The booklet was released by former Sangha MLA of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee Acharya Tshering Lama at the party office here at Development Area.
Former chief minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari said the party had released the book to make people aware of the “misdeeds” and “corruption” of the leaders of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front.
“The booklet is the result of a research conducted by the party on innumerable information collected through RTI applications and from various reliable sources to expose such public enemies,” said Bhandari, the SPCC president.

Four SPCC functionaries had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in July 2006 alleging that the chief minister had amassed assets worth Rs. 15.38 crore, disproportionate to his known source of income. The petitioners had prayed for a CBI probe.

The apex court had dismissed the petition on March 25. “It’s always open to the petitioners to approach the investigative agencies directly with the incriminating materials and it is for the investigative agencies to decide on the further course of action,” the court had said in its order.

The SPCC lodged its complaints with the CBI on May 24 and July 1. Most of these complaints have now been compiled in the booklet.
Bhandari said the documents submitted to the CBI were copies of affidavits filed by those named in the complaints declaring their wealth and income to the election authorities from 1994 to 2009.
He said the booklet had already been submitted to Congress president Sonia Gandhi before a party delegation meets her next month

State Bank of Sikkim fraud Swindlers Handed Over to West Bengal Police

Gangtok, Nov. 28: Two men, arrested for trying to swindle a nationalised bank out of crores of rupees, were brought from Sikkim to Birpara today and remanded in 10 days’ police custody by the additional chief judicial magistrate.

Amit Das of Barasat in North 24-Parganas and Subrata Banerjee of Cossipore, Calcutta, had been arrested by Sikkim police in Gangtok while trying to pull off a scam in another bank there.

In a complaint filed with Birpara police on October 28, the manager of the Central Bank of India’s Birpara branch, Pradeep Sarkar, said Das had opened an account in his branch. “On October 16, Sarkar received a phone call from his counterpart in the Burrabazar branch in Calcutta that Das had produced a letter of credit issued by the Birpara branch and wanted to withdraw Rs 48.7 lakh. He, however, fled the scene when the accounts were being verified,” said the assistant public prosecutor, Samir Majumdar.

“On November 21, Sarkar received another call from the Central Bank India’s branch in Vadodara saying Das had produced another letter of credit issued by his branch and wanted to withdraw Rs 1.27 crore. The branch was told not to make any payment, but the duo disappeared,” said the public prosecutor.

Sources in the Birpara police station said police intelligence had come to know about the arrests and asked the Sikkim police to hand them over.

A letter of credit is issued by a bank to its customer against his/her assets, a police officer explained. “Scamsters use these banking instruments to withdraw large sums of money. However, it is most likely that the letter of credit is fake,” added the officer.

Pradeep Dutta, the subdivisional police officer of Alipurduar, said more about the duo would be revealed after interrogation.

State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) denies any role in multi-crore fraud

Gangtok, November 22: The State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) refutes to the allegation against its involvement in multi-crore scam. The Chief General Manager of Bank refutes to allegation mad over the local media since past few week, he said there is no any connection of Bank nor any employees of Bank are involved.
“The Bank would like to take this opportunity to assure the public in general that the accounts which were mentioned in the news reports were opened by the Bank only after following the “Know Your Customer KYC” norms prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India. The account holder had filled up the forms and submitted the requisite supporting documents and the account was opened only after the scrutiny of the documents supplied by the customers.
Adding to this , the new applicants were also introduced to the Bank by our existing account holders. Further contrary to report in certain newspapers that the account were started with Rs 500 only, the Bank would like to state that the “Current Account are started with an initial deposite of Rs 5000 and not Rs 500,” read the press statement. SBS has further clarified that the issuance of cheques book to the holder is done to facilitate the smooth operation of transaction of the account. “ This is normal procedure followed by the Bank in all Current Account maintained with us. The cheques issued to the account holders by the Bank become their personal property and the account holders are themselves responsible for the cheques issued by them. The Bank does not have any say in the amount filled in by the account holders and only upon the presentation of the cheque before the teller can verify for the bank vouch for its authenticity.
Reacting on the newspaper reports about the statement on the reverse side of the cheques on behalf of the SBS making assurance to fulfill the obligation and honoring the cheques on the due date i.e in November 2014, the Bank claims that these cheques were never presented to Bank nor was signed by any officials nor stamped.
“Even if these cheques were presented to Bank officials for signature and seal, it would have still not have been completed since it is not in policy Bank to endorse such cheques in this manner,” it said.
Regarding the issue pertaining to the Internal Bills of Exchange (IBOE), the Bank has clarified its position and said that it deos not deal with any Foreign Exchange or IBoEs.
“Even if the IBoEs are authentic , the Bank would have to seek a permission from Finance Department of Government of Sikkim before any transaction are made in this regard to IBoEs. Hence, without proper scrutiny and prior permission the Bank has no authority to accept any proposals relating to any transactions with regards to any IBoE or Foreign Exchange, “ it said.
“The Bank would like to reiterate that there was no “scam” involving the State Bank of Sikkim and any employees of the Bank. This may be intend to defraud the Bank and any individuals by certain people, but due to the quick action of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the attempt was thwarted ,” the press statement added.

Sikkim Opposition Parties demands enquiry into multi-crore fraud attempt

Gangtok, November 20: Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) has demanded the investigating agencies like CID should be independent hand for conducting in-depth investigation in major crimes like the multi-crore scam to hoodwink State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) which was busted recently.

In a press statement, SPCC congratulated the CID and State Intelligence Bureau for their ‘unprecedented success’ in busting the serious racket of Rs. 85 crores. The party said that names of those influential persons involved in the case should be made public so these big names are exposed. Culprits must be punished irrespective of their official, social and political status, the party said.

The SPCC added that ever since the formation of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in Sikkim, the State has been witnessing innumerable major crimes. The opposition party highlighted cases like printing of fake currency notes, operation of illegal private banks like Teena, Bharosa and Siddhi, which swindled away crores of rupees of the depositors, smuggling of red sandalwood.

“The commitment of the SDF government to uproot corruption and illegal activities from the face of Sikkim has so far proved complete failure. Instead there has been constant increase in such activities”, said the SPCC.

Meanwhile,State BJP vice president Padam Chettri has demanded that an appropriate Central government agency to probe into the attempted financial fraud in Sikkim that came into light recently thanks to a CID Sikkim expose.
“The accused persons are from outside the State and the criminal case has national and international ramifications. Moreover it has foreign exchange angle since the International Bills of Exchange is involved”, said Chettri today in a press statement. He demanded that the case should be investigated by the appropriate Central government agency such as CBI.
The BJP vice president has decided to approach the CBI Director requesting the agency to take up the case

TVI Express scam in Sikkim

Local people senses foul over company address; files FIR

GANGTOK, September 21: People in Sikkim looking for easy money within a short period of time have often been ‘soft’ targets of many fraudulent companies.
Many cases of duping by such false companies have been reported earlier in the State but in most cases the victims were mostly innocent and ignorant people who blindly invest their earnings for lucrative offers.
In the latest episode, a FIR was lodged today at Namchi Police Station against the so-called “London based” Travel Ventures International (TVI) Express stating that the address used by the company was wrong.
Doubting the intention and the purpose of the company, the complainant has also alleged that the company was a fake undertaking and was using wrong address to make an ‘impression of sorts’ on the customers.
In the FIR, the complainant has stated that he had made a personal call at Global Head Quarters in London to inquire about the office of the TVI Express. “But when I called up number 0044-2078688500 of Marble Arch Tower, London, the operator there told me that TVI Express has moved out from the building. This means the building shown in the website has no connection with TVI Express,” the FIR read. The TVI Express website had shown a huge building in London claiming it to be their global head quarters.
“Since there is no office in the said building, some of the people involved in the TVI chain business in Sikkim are still showing wrong address in the presentation which is wrong,” the complainant said ;
However, when this complainant started sending SMS to his friends, who have been linked in TVI Express’ chain business, he received a call at 11:45 am today from one Ramesh Chandra Jaiswal of Siliguri claiming to be the company’s professional and threatened him of dire consequences if he continues sending SMS regarding TVI Express. The complainant further stated that the caller disconnected his phone and did not take his calls when he asked Ramesh Chandra to register a complaint against him.
 TVI customers in the Capital  informed that the mode of payment is being made in cash and not in cheques, thus aggravating the situation.
Sources talking to journalists also said that the company has no registered office set up in India till date.
People surfing TVI Express’ website has also alleged that the company lacks ownership disclosure or Corporate Officers on TVIExpress.com website. The website does not have privacy policy or terms and conditions listed on the TVIExpress.com website, they said.

TVI Express, people here believe is one of the fastest spreading chain businesses in Sikkim and the North Eastern States of India in particular like other similar agencies through which one has to make a down line link in order to gain the points after paying a sum of Rs 13,000.
“Since many people are showing keen interest in investing on the scheme, they should be very careful about the functioning of such companies,” a resident of Gangtok said.