Thane, Jan 19 (PTI) The Navi Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested four persons, including a woman, for allegedly cheating several investors of crores by promising them lucrative returns, an official said.

A team from the crime branch raided the office of Vanita Enterprises in Navi Mumbai and arrested the four accused, who allegedly cheated at least 20 investors by promising to double their investments in 20 months, the official said.

Neither did the accused pay investors their returns, nor did they return their money, he said.

The police have arrested director of the company Vanita Abhijit Patil (40), owner Abhijit Madhukar Patil (42), Mukund Ashok Puranik (39) director and manager Yogesh Rajaram Bilaye (48), the official said.

An offence under sections 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act of 1978 and MPID Act has been registered against the arrested accused, he added.

According to the police, the accused have allegedly cheated close to 80 persons, including the 20 complainants, to the tune of over Rs 2 crore and the amount is likely to go up.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)