Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Around 10,120 women were cheated of over Rs 1 crore by a man who was arrested by the Crime Branch on Monday.
Police said that accused Amit Verma of Bicholi Mardana, who is regional coordinator of Mamta Mahila Utthan Foundation, was arrested following a complaint by a group of women who were cheated by the accused.
Police said that the foundation gives training in weaving to women. The accused first contacted the women and made them join the foundation. Then he made each woman bring 20 other women to join the foundation. He used to take Rs 1000 from each woman and offered them three months of training. He promised that they would
get Rs 9000 after completion of training and he would be returning the Rs 1000 as well. In this manner, the accused had developed six groups in the Indore and Mandleshwar region in which there are around 120 women who were cheated of Rs 1.18 lakh. The accused made the women transfer the amount they received after completion of the training to his private accounts instead of the accounts of the foundation.
A woman from Dhar also lodged a complaint that the accused had duped her in a similar fashion. She alleged that the women are taught weaving for three months and then the accused told them to teach 20 other women and earn money. This way he opened over 500 centres in several districts of the state and duped over 10,000 women of Rs 98,50,000.
Police officials said that complaints are coming from several places in the state. Police are locating all the 500 centres in the state and will shut down all of them. Police officials said that the cheated sum will be recovered and returned to the victims if possible.
