Another cheat on the run: Gurgaon conman duped 3,000 Army, NSG officers

New Delhi : Another case of financial fraud has surfaced, this time in Gurgaon, and the victims have largely been defence personnel. More than 100 National Security Guard (NSG) commandos and close to 3,000 Army officers were allegedly cheated by a conman who promised high returns on their investments. The amount lost could reportedly be as high as Rs 250 crore. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police registered a case on Monday against the accused Gurgaon-based businessman, Naveen Kumar Sharma (35), after a complaint was registered by the Investors’ Association on April 30. It has received 28 complaints against Sharma so far, mostly from defence personnel.Sources said that almost 95 per cent of the victims duped by Sharma are Army and NSG officers — majors, colonels, captains and jawans. The accused had opened a company — Money Mantra, at plot no 1118, Sector 17 (IFFCO Chowk), Gurgaon in 2003. He promised investors a return of 10 per cent every month. He was reportedly the chairman of the company and his family members were its directors. According to sources, a few retired Army officers allegedly worked for him as agents to attract investors. “Retired Army officers, including Rajpal Yadav, contacted Army and NSG officials. Another of his employees is called Manoj Gupta,” an officer said.

Naveen Sharma reportedly gave 10 per cent interest to all Army and NSG officials in the beginning. “He kept the investors happy for nearly four years. He issued blank cheques of the interest amount in advance,” said retired Colonel Ajay Chaddha (name changed), also a victim. In 2008 April, he opened another company — Big Leap, registered with the Registrar of Companies (ROC), at Dwarka from where he got in touch with Army officers in the Delhi Cantonment area. Around 3,200 people had reportedly invested in his two companies in the last few years.

“Many investors had parked several lakh in his companies as he was giving better returns than banks, the stock market or any other financial institutions,” said an official. After giving returns in the beginning to all officers as promised, he told them they could re-invest the same money in the company as the amount would multiply and returns would get higher. “Since he offered monthly returns, most investors never collected them. They preferred to leave the money with him to get multiple returns,” said Colonel Chaddha. Sharma put out advertisements of his companies and also had a website. Sources say he stopped giving returns in December, 2008. On April 16, he disappeared with his family members and relatives, who were part of the racket.

(Indian Express, 17 June 2009)