Hyderabad: Nowhera Shaikh, Founder Chairperson of Heera Gold, an investment and finance firm accused of collecting money from hundreds of Muslims from India and abroad in the name of "Halal Investment", has been arrested in New Delhi and brought to Hyderabad Tuesday afternoon.
Nowehra Shaikh describes herself as an Entrepreneur, Businesswoman, Educationist, Human Rights and Women’s Rights Activist. She launched a political party, All India Mahila Empowerment Party (AIMEP), in November last year - few months before the Karnakata assembly elections.
The launch of her political party came amidst accusations of fraud and cheating by her critics, though her company was distributing "profits" to its investors regularly.
Nowhera Shaikh has offices almost all over India and abroad, especially in UAE. She used to claim trading in gold, promising investors profits to the tune of 30 to 40 percent. She later also started other businesses like textiles and food, and also established shopping malls in some cities, including Hyderabad.
Nowhera Shaikh is also famous for organising various events attended by filmstars and prominent personalities. Her AIMEP launch in New Delhi in November 2016 was also attended by stars like Sania Mirza, and cricktere Mohammad Azharuddin and actor Sunil Shetty were regulars in her programmes.
However, soon after Karnataka elections, Heeral Gold stopped depositing "profits" into the accounts of "investors" citing one or the other reasons. The delay in the payment created panic among the investors, many of whom, even lidged police complaints in Hyderabad and some other parts of the country.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar told media persons about the arrest of Nowhera Shaikh. She was taken into custody in Hyderabad today afternoon after investors took to the street in the city demanding that they get their money back.
Police sources said that preliminary probe has revealed that Nowhera Shaikh is running about 15 firms in different names under Heera Group of Companies and has some 160 accounts. It is also claimed that Heera Group has more than 02 lakh investors in India and abroad.
Despite a defeat in Karnataka assembly elections, Nowhera Shaikh had on Thursday last announced to contest all 119 seats in Telangana where state elections are scheduled to be held on December 07, 2018.
According to reports, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had in July 2018 clarified that activities of Heera Group, better known as Heera Gold, are in the nature of Ponzi or multilevel marketing (MLM) scheme.
However, SEBI said, since these activities were beyond the ambit of SEBI and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the case was referred to CID - Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Commissioner of Police in Hyderabad.
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