Woman held for cheating

Hyderabad, February 18: Mahankali police on Friday arrested a woman and her assistant for cheating gullible people to the tune of several lakhs of rupees by luring them with huge returns.

The arrested have been identified as 33-year-old Zohra Gulab Shaik of Mumbai and Rajesh Kumar of Nellore.

Police said that Zohra floated a firm named Crecer Financial Services and opened several branches in Hyderabad. She recruited business executives including Rajesh Kumar. The duo lured people to deposit lakhs of rupees in the firm offering 18 to 24 per cent interest.

Initially, she paid the interest for a few months to the depositors to make them trust her and also to attract more and more depositors.

Thus, she collected huge amounts from the people and after a few months refused to either pay interest or to return the money, police said.

One of the victims, Gopala Krishna, who had deposited Rs 23 lakh, lodged a complaint with the Mahankali police. Based on the complaint, police registered a case and arrested Zohra and Rajesh.