Fazilka: the mastermind of a ponzi scheme, on a two-day police detention; valued Rs. 1K crore in property

Neeraj Thathai, also known as Neeraj Arora, was taken into jail for two days after being apprehended by the Fazilka and Faridkot police on Monday as part of a combined operation. Proclaimed offender (PO) Arora, who had been missing for eight or nine years and had a Rs. 2 lakh bounty on his head, was apprehended from the Uttarakhand area of Pauri Garhwal.

During a joint news conference, IGP Gursharan Singh Sandhu of the Faridkot Range and DIG Ranjit Singh Dhillon of the Ferozepur Range said that the preliminary investigation had shown that Arora had traveled to Thailand and Cambodia using a forged passport.

They said that phony passports, cell phones, expensive cars, and other documentation had been taken from him by police units. In this respect, they said, three additional people had been taken into custody. According to Dhillon, the accused was attempting to avoid arrest by posing as someone else with false identification. “The defendant possesses over 1,200 acres and 200 apartments in Punjab and MP, valued at over Rs 1,000 crore,” the prosecutor said.

After being detained by the Fazilka police in February 2016, Neeraj skipped bail and was subsequently proclaimed a person of interest in February 2017. Arora is a PO in at least 92 instances at this time. However, a number of writ cases brought by the victims against Arora were still pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Neeraj, who is from the Abohar town in the Fazilka district, is reported by the police to have defrauded hundreds of victims out of millions of rupees by offering plots and real estate at a lower cost.

According to the police, 211 POs have been apprehended by the Fazilka and Faridkot Police so far during the present special drive.