An Uttarakhand man who carried a reward of ₹50,000 on his head for duping scores of people of crores of rupees by way of fake investment schemes and organised gang activities has been extradited from the United Arab Emirates, police said.
The Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) of Uttarakhand Police successfully brought the fraudster fugitive, Jagdish Punetha, to India on November 13, said the Additional Director General of Police (Crime and Law and Order) V Murugesan, on Friday.
According to a police investigation, Punetha and his associates allegedly committed a fraud worth approximately ₹15.17 crore and illegally acquired movable and immovable assets worth ₹2.22 crore.
He also has four cases registered against him in Pithoragarh district for allegedly defrauding people through fake investment schemes, forming an organised gang to make illegal financial gains, and being involved in other criminal cases.
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Punetha faces charges under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and under the Gangsters Act, among others.
Based on inputs from Pithoragarh police, once it was confirmed that Punetha was hiding in Dubai, the CB-CID coordinated with Interpol through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and issued a Red Corner Notice against him, which led to his arrest in Dubai.
A three-member team led by an additional superintendent of police, Dehradun Sector, CB-CID, went to Dubai and brought Punetha to India, they said.
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