Gurugram Woman Cheated Of Rs 1.5 Crore Over Celebrity Cricket Match Promise

A Gurugram director of a private firm was allegedly duped of Rs 1.5 crore by four people who told her they help organise celebrity cricket matches and that she can make profit by investing in their project, police said on Thursday.

An FIR has been registered against the four including a couple -- Indu and Rajeev -- at Sector 50 police station based on a complaint filed by Babita Yadav, the director of Unnati Private Limited.

The company's office is located in the Space ITech Park in sector 50.

Ms Yadav alleged in her complaint that the couple and their two friends -- Praveen Sethi and Pawan Jangda -- took Rs 1.5 crore from her in 2018 in the name of organising cricket games involving Bollywood stars, but the matches never happened and they were also not returning her money.

"It was in March 2018 when my acquaintances Indu and Rajeev came to the office and said their friends Praveen Sethi and Pawan Jangda, residents of Jaipur, conduct celebrity matches and I can also join them and earn profit by investing money.

"The couple also claims they meet Boney Kapoor, Salman Khan and other famous celebrities of Bollywood and said that they also play the matches," she said.

She said that a month later the four met her at a hotel in Jaipur and told her that the match will be held in Delhi.

"On October 12 in 2018, the four accused came to my office for a meeting. Praveen and Pawan said that they are the owners of Signature Cricket League and are in a high position in the BCCI and asked to invest Rs 1.5 crore by December 31, 2018 and made a written agreement. Rs 85 lakh was transferred from my account while Rs 15 lakh from Balbir's wife Rekha's account in the account of the accused." She has claimed that Balbir was also present during the Jaipur hotel meeting.

"Later, they came to the office and took Rs 50 lakh more. After a three-month wait when the match did not happen, I asked them and they promised again and again to return money till August 2022 but did not give me my money," the woman said in her complaint.

She said she met them at a restaurant in sector 50 and demanded the money, but they said they will not give the money. "If I asked again, they would kill me." Following the complaint, an FIR was registered against the four, under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC at Sector 50 police station.

"As per the complaint, an FIR has been registered and we are verifying the facts. Action will be taken as per the law," said inspector Rajesh Kumar, SHO of sector 50 police station.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)