In yesterday’s(5.02.2010) DNA news paper the arrest of Mr.Masood, Chaiman
and Ms. Seema has been reported. The investors now should stake their
claims before the authorities for getting their hard earned money
invested. There should be panel of selected investors at different
places to collect data of investors about their amounts invested,
amounts received and balancae due.
Riyaz, Mysore
The
extract of the City Limouzine appearing in the google (ciourtesy
Sri.Ramesh) is placed below for information of the investors.
E X T R A C T
"After playing hide and seek with investigating agencies and a series of
unsuccessful attempts to seek court relief, S M Masood, chairman of
tainted investment company City Limouzines ,
and his wife, Seema, who were on the run since last August, were picked
up by the police from Alwar district in Rajasthan on Thursday morning.
Thousands of investors across the
country—Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore—have been
duped of several crores of rupees by the company which offered returns
as high as 48% through several schemes. Two of the popular schemes were
operated through City Limouzines and its sister concern City Realcom.
TOI has been consistently
reporting on the scam. Additional commissioner of police (EOW) Sanjay
Saxena said that a police team had been camping in Delhi since past one
week tracking his movements. “He has been on the move shifting his
place of stay. However, we succeeded in nabbing him, ’’ he said.
The police first picked up
Prateek Kanakia, an accomplice of Masood, from Chanakyapuri in Delhi.
His questioning led to the arrest of Masood, Seema, her brother, Amber,
who were putting up at a resort in Alwar. The Tees Hazari court granted
custody only for Masood and Seema and the duo would be produced in a
Mumbai court on Friday, officials said.
Since the first FIR was
registered in September 2007, Masood has been trying to evade the
police. The Bombay high court quashed the FIR but it was restored by
the Supreme Court. The police has been under pressure since then as
investors have been accusing them of not being tough, forcing even the
chief minister and home minister to convince the investors.
According to sources, the police
almost nabbed Masood last week but he slipped away. “The surveillance
included both physical and technical. Seema and Masood have been accessing
their mails through their mobile phones and also used leased lines to
access the laptop, ’’ a police officer said. One of the investors,
businessman Manohar Lohia, who has been campaigning against the
company, also assisted the police by tracing the internet protocol
(IP)address of the laptop used by them.
Masood, who has been running the
show from the Nariman Point office for several years, sensed trouble in
August last when the cheques issued by them to investors as their
returns started bouncing. There are 11 FIRs registered against him in
Mumbai alone.
END OF THREE-YEAR-LONG DRAMA
The Scamster
SM Masood, chairman of City Group that floated two companies City Limouzines and City Realcom, offered schemes that promised unbelievable interest (as high as 48%) to investors. For an investment of Rs 97, 000, City Limouzine offered Rs 4, 000 every month for five years. City Realcom offered Rs 8, 885 on an investment of Rs 1.4 lakh without any viable business module.
The Scam Unsuspecting investors from across India fell for the schemes. Some availed bank loans; some even put in their retirement benefits hoping to make some quick money. None, however, questioned as to how the company would provide such huge returns. Some investors were even upset with the police when a FIR was registered in September 2007. But by August 2009, the bubble burst when cheques issued by the company began bouncing. Incidentally, the company is also under the ED scanner for foreign exchange violations involving exports of diamonds over Rs 300 crores.
How Masood Was Caught
Manohar Lohia, an NRI businessman from Canada, made Mumbai his temporary base to ensure that Masood was nabbed. For the past four months, he has been helping the police in tracing the directors of the company. It was on his information the police picked up Geeta Razzaki, her husband Umar Razzaki, both directors in the company, on November 25 from Pune. They are still in jail. Lohia said, “I got the IP address of Seema’s laptop as she logged on the internet via a cellphone. The cellphone was used as a modem. Once I got the IP address, the police secured Seema’s phone number through the (IP) address and traced her location. I had sent her a few emails and as soon as she opened it, I got hold of the IP address, which I then passed it on to the police, ’’ he said.