30-30 scam: Firm owner arrested

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Sudam Mansingh Chavan (40, Nilajgaon, Bidkin), the close friend of Santosh alias Sachin Rathod, the main mastermind of the 30-30 scam, was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing.

Police Inspector Sambhaji Pawar said that the court remanded him in police custody until August 24.

This scam that shook Marathwada came to light in November 2021. The farmers received crores of rupees against their land acquisition under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project. By luring these farmers with 25-30 per cent return, Rathod collected crores of rupees from them and fled.

A case was first registered in 2021 and he was arrested. But, he was released from jail after the original complainants withdrew their statements. Later, 60 complainants made fresh complaints with Osmanpura Police Station regarding fraud committed by Rathod. The Economic Offences Wing has started an investigation.

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Money diverted in firm’s name

Sudam and Sachin are close friends. Sudam had political and social dominance in the area. Therefore, many people invested crores of rupees with Sachin on his advice.

Sudam has Samatdada Enterprises and a Multiservices firm. Sachin sent Rs 11.43 crore to the bank account of that firm. He sent another Rs 7.10 crore to the Punjab National Bank account of the firm. A total of Rs 18.53 crore was diverted. So far, five accused have been arrested and Pankaj Prahlad Jadhav was recently released on bail. Suhas Pandit Chavan, Krishna Eknath Rathod, Sahebrao Appa Rathod, Alasingh Shamrao Rathod are in jail.

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Handcuffed in court premises

The police had been searching for Sudam for several days. PSI Chandrakant Kamthe received information that he would be appearing in court on Monday in a cheque dishonour case. Based on this, Kamthe, head constable Sandeep Jadhav, Prabhakar Raut, and Sakharam More laid a trap in the court premises in the afternoon and arrested him. The police are investigating what he did with the 18 crores and to which account of the other accused the money went.