Nagpur: The Rs 470 crore fraud case involving Pune’s OPC Pvt. Ltd. has been making headlines, as 18,000 investors from all over India were allegedly cheated. The main accused, director Dr. Srikanth Acharya, was arrested after a case was filed under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act at Mouda police station in Nagpur district for a fraud amounting to Rs 41.30 lakh. However, the case took an unexpected turn when Dr. Acharya was granted regular bail just two months after being in police custody for 12 days, according to a local Marathi daily.
According to the report, Dr. Srikanth Acharya, the primary accused in the Rs 41.30 lakh fraud case, was apprehended by Mouda Police and Nagpur Rural Economic Offences Wing. Subsequently, the court remanded him to a 12-day police custody. Surprisingly, as soon as the 12-day police custody ended, Dr. Acharya was granted bail, becoming the first accused in an MPID case to be released within such a short period.
According to legal experts, the case is of significant concern as it involves a massive fraud amounting to Rs 470 crore. Another case of fraud, amounting to Rs 41.30 lakh, was registered at Mouda police station. In both cases, the accused were charged under the MPID Act. While Dr. Srikanth Acharya is currently in custody at a jail in Pune, the other fugitive accomplices remain at large. The police’s inability to arrest these individuals has raised questions about the concrete steps taken to apprehend them.
The State Government has taken a serious interest in the matter due to the unexpected bail granted to the main accused. Various questions have been raised, including the reasons behind the failure to arrest the other accomplices and the extent of efforts made by the authorities to apprehend them. Additionally, there are suspicions about the secrecy observed by the police from the time of Dr. Acharya’s arrest until his bail, leading to questions about the information that may have been extracted from him during the 12-day police custody.
The Rs 470 crore fraud case involving OPC Pvt. Ltd. and its director Dr. Srikanth Acharya continues to draw attention due to the large number of investors affected and the accused being granted bail within two months under the MPID Act. The police’s inability to apprehend other fugitive accomplices and the secrecy maintained throughout the investigation have further added to the complexity of the case.
