How Manoj bowled innocent investors with no-balls

More than the attractive schemes, it was the name of Manoj Prabhakar which lured people into investing huge sums of money in the group. The most popular were the fixed deposit schemes. Invest Rs 5,000 now and get Rs 50,000 after 10 years – a scheme that promised a ten-fold growth of the money in 10 years. Another irresistible offer was getting three times the loan of the money invested. Invest Rs 25,000 and get a loan of Rs 75,000. Many a gullible people, mostly from the lower middle class, fell for the lucrative offers and invested their life savings in the group. There were some investors – daily wagers and labourers – who deposited Rs 10 everyday from their hard-earned money.

And now all investors are running from pillar to post trying to retrieve whatever they can. The group’s plush office in posh Devraj building of Sapna-Sangeeta area of Indore packed up in August 1999. When Rajesh Aggarwal went to the office to inquire why he had not been receiving any receipts from the company, he was shocked to see the abandoned office with nothing but cobwebs, some files and papers strewn in the hall.

"I had invested Rs 15,000 in the company only because Manoj Prabhakar was associated with it. I could never imagine that a cricketer who has played for the country will cheat us and run away with our money," he says. Other director Nautiyal and his wife Neeru (also on the management of the group) have disappeared from the city and so has Narendra Singh Bisht, the manager of the Indore branch.

"All those associated with the company have disappeared. The case was registered on June 5 on the complaint of Shreyas Singhal, a former employee of the company. We raided the cobwebbed office and residences of the senior people of the company and seized crucial documents, photographs and papers. We have enough evidence against Prabhakar," says Additional Superintendent of Police B S Chauhan, heading the investigations in the case. Prabhakar has consistently denied his involvement.

Singhal, a former employee and agent of Apace India said that even he had been taken for a ride. "I was appointed as the agent and my job was to convince people to invest in the group. I was given commission on the investment I got. I was very impressed initially and myself invested Rs 50,000 in the group. I had been very awe-struck with Prabhakar. I am a cricket fan, you see. But they did not even spare me," he says with regret. Another former employee Mustafa Amjherawala also lost Rs 40,000.

The police have so far received complaints from 10 investors but they say that more have approached them unofficially. "There are more than 500 investors in the Indore city alone. We are still in the process of calculating the total amount of money involved in the scam. According to our estimate, it will run in hundreds of lakhs of rupees," says Chauhan.

Many of the investors even went to Lucknow, the registered head office of the Apace India group to make inquiries. "Nobody even listened to us. There was no responsible person in the office. There were only peon and burly securitymen who dismissed us rudely. In fact, one even threatened me and warned me not to come there again," says Hasim Ali, who lost Rs 65,000. The investors, most having lost their life savings, are angry and want to see the company directors including Prabhakar punished. But more than that they want their money back.