In the Rs 155 crore financial scam, the Crime Branch on Tuesday raided the office of prime accused Santosh alias Bunty Rampal Shahu and unearthed a racket of bogus companies, hawala operations and large-scale money laundering. The raid was conducted at Shahu’s premises in the Small Factory Area, situated just behind his residence, from where he was operating a fake firm named ‘Sakshi Foods’. During the raid, police seized crucial evidence, including bank passbooks, investment records and documents directly linked to the scam. Officials described the seizure as “evidentiary proof” that will help establish how Shahu made a fortune through the scam. A total of eight bank accounts belonging to Shahu and his family members have been frozen and a forensic audit is now underway, said police officials.

 

According to police, Shahu had created an elaborate setup employing a 15-member team, including Chartered Accountants and commerce graduates to run the racket smoothly. Identity cards of all employees have been confiscated for verification. The investigation has revealed that Shahu’s office functioned as a hub for businessmen, online gaming players, hawala operators and buissinessmen looking to convert unaccounted cash into legal money. They were doing this through a network of fake firms, forged documents and manipulated billing. Two shell companies - Kshitij Enterprises and Awadh Enterprises - were found to be central to the scam. Kshitij Enterprises is believed to have facilitated dubious transactions for as many as 113 fake companies, while Awadh Enterprises was linked to 57 such entities. The money routed through these accounts was allegedly siphoned off and reintegrated through hawala channels.

 

The police are suspecting involvement of a major financial syndicate. One of the victims, Biswajit Sudhanshu Roy from West Bengal, was misled with a job offer and later discovered that his identity was used to register Kshitij Enterprises. A similar misuse of identity was detected in the creation of Awadh Enterprises, which processed transactions worth Rs 59.51 crore between September and December 2024 without the knowledge of the identity holder. Apart from Bunty Shahu (52), the police have arrested four other accused in the case: Jayesh Rampal Shahu (36), a resident of Kapil Heights, Imambada; Brijkishore Ramvilas Maniyar (59), of Shankar Nagar; Rishi Hitesh Lakhani (21), of Shastri Nagar; Anand Vinod Harde (33), of Surya Nagar, Kalamna. All are being interrogated in connection with the bogus transactions and their respective roles in the fraudulent network.

 

 

The Crime Branch has also recorded the statements of four witnesses who disclosed that the accused had registered fake companies under their names. These companies - Prime Traders, Trisha Traders and Ashish Traders - were allegedly used to conduct bogus transactions amounting to over Rs 160 crore. The police officials said that the scale of the scam could be much larger, with suspected laundering running into thousands of crores over time.