The Uttarakhand Police have arrested a wanted Chartered Accountant (CA) who cheated several Indians of ₹750 crore with the help of his Chinese associates using shell companies.
The accused was absconding for more than two years and was trying to flee to Thailand when a team of Uttarakhand STF arrested him on Sunday from Indira Gandhi International(IGI) Airport Delhi.
According to STF officials, CA Abhishek Agarwal was arrested from IGI Airport as he was about to flee India and take flight to Thailand. The STF said a thorough probe is going on to unearth all the shell companies Agarwal and his associates, mainly from China, were operating to cheat the people in India.
The STF said Agarwal is accused of cheating over ₹750 crore with the help of a network of online loan apps across the country and was sent to the jail on Monday after being presented in the court. These loan apps were operational under the tutelage of several shell companies having their fake offices in Gurugram.
The shell companies had Chinese directors but were run by Abhishek and Ankur Dhingra from Gurugram. They also used WhatsApp groups to dupe people of their money but the groups were active only in China.
The accused, in collaboration with some Chinese nationals as co-directors, created several shell companies and cheated the people in the guise of providing loans through fake loan apps.
Uttarakhand SSP STF Navneet Bhullar stated that Ankur Dhingra of Gurugram and Abhishek were jointly operating the shell companies. Both the cheats were able to siphon off hard earned money of the Indians to China.
It’s notable that an FIR was registered against Agarwal and Dhingra in 2022. Ankur Dhingra was arrested in 2023 while Abhishek Agarwal absconded. Subsequently, a countrywide lookout notice was issued by the state police against Agarwal.
He was constantly tracked by the Uttarakhand STF and the state police. The STF arrested him on Sunday while he was trying to board a flight to Thailand.
Officials informed that Agarwal might be part of a bigger network of online cheats. Officials in the Uttarakhand Police are also trying to link his arrest with a similar raid and arrest of 14 people including several Chinese nationals by the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorism Squad(ATS).