Mumbai: Hours after getting out of a Hyderabad prison, Heera Group’s Chairman Nowhera Shaik, was arrested again by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police on Friday, for allegedly duping investors in Mumbai to the tune of hundreds of crores.
Shaik, who was first arrested on October 15 in Delhi and later brought to Hyderabad on cheating charges was released on bail by the Metropolitan Sessions Court of Nampally in Hyderabad, after the police failed to provide prima facie evidence that Heera Group had defaulted payment of dividends to investors.
However, soon after she was granted bail and released from the city’s Chanchalguda central prison, a team of Mumbai EOW took her in custody. She was produced before a Mumbai court Friday evening which remanded her in police custody till November 3.
The Mumbai police arrested Shaik based on an FIR filed on October 23 by a Mumbai resident, Shane Illahi Shaikh, who had made an investment of Rs 6 lakh in Heera Gold. Shane in his complaint said he was promised monthly returns of 2.8 to 3.2% on his investment, and received the returns only for the first few months. However, the payments stopped from June.
According to the Mumbai police, of the estimated 2 lakh people who have invested in Heera Gold, over 10,000 investors are from Mumbai alone. However, according to the Telangana police, they are unable to ascertain the total number of investors in the company, since representatives of the firm were non-cooperative during the investigation.
Nowhera Shaik’s lawyer Vineet Dhanda said, the case against his client was an act of political vendetta, as she had launched a political party called the All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP), and that her opponents are scared of her popularity. He said they will be moving court on Moday for bail.
Investors in the company have staged multiple protests against Shaik and her company, for defaulting on monthly payments and change in payout dates. The company is alleged to have lost large sums of money in the Karnataka elections, where Shaik’s MEP party made its political debut, which allegedly triggered panic among the company’s investors.
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Shaik Zakeer Hussain is the Founder and Editor of The Cognate.
