B Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill. | (Credits: X)
High-profile Indian cricketers Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, Mohit Sharma and B Sai Sudharsan are set to be summoned by Gujarat CID Crime in connection with relation to ₹450 crore chit-fund scam. The investigation comes after the authorities interrogated Bhupendrasinh Zala, a kingpin of Ponzi schemes as he revealed to not have returned the money invested by these players.
According to the CID officials, as reported by Ahmedabad Mirror, Gill, captain of the IPL team Gujarat Titans invested ₹1.95 crore, while the others had put in significantly smaller amounts. The authorities revealed that they will be called in for questioning depending upon their availability.
It has emerged that CID officials had caught Rushik Mehta, who handled Zala’s accounts. In this regard, an official stated, as quoted by The Ahmedabad Mirror:
“If Mehta is found to be involved, appropriate action will be taken. We have also deployed a team of accountants to examine bank transactions and an unofficial account book maintained by Zala. The unofficial book has been seized, and raids are continuing at various locations since Monday.”
CID to continue raids and amounts likely to be greater than ₹450 crore
Meanwhile, CID’s initial investigations emerged that Zala had defrauded a staggering amount of ₹6000 crore. Nevertheless, further digging reduced it to ₹450 crore. The official added:
“Zala also maintained an unofficial account book, which has been seized by the CID crime unit. The transactions recorded in that book amount to around Rs 52 crore. Based on current investigations, we estimate the total amount to be around Rs 450 crore, and it may increase as raids continue.”
