A 57-year-old priest-turned-property dealer has been arrested by the Delhi Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) for his role in a ₹2,700-crore investment scam that duped hundreds of people nationwide by promising weekly returns and plots in a township project in Dholera, Gujarat.
Police identified the suspect as Jugal Kishore of Vishwas Nagar, Shahdara. The syndicate allegedly projected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the project’s “brand ambassador,” even showing edited videos of him to gain investors’ trust.
Nearly 150 cases have been registered across India against the fraudsters. Two key associates—ex-serviceman Subhash Bijarania, 45, and Opendra Bijarania, 47, from Rajasthan’s Sikar district—were arrested last December and remain in jail.
Additional commissioner of police Amrutha Guguloth said that the case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy was registered against the investment company, Nexa Evergreen Private Limited, and its officer bearers on the complaint of Neha Kumari and 97 other victims, most of them government employees from Delhi, who were duped of around ₹150 crore for nearly a year, starting January 2022.
The victims alleged that two men, Jugal Kishore and Vinod Kumar, represented themselves as directors and partners of the company, and promised them of 3% weekly returns (every Tuesday) against their investments and allotment of plots in a township named “Nexa Evergreen Project” in Dholera, Ahmadabad, Gujarat.
“The group operated across the country with its head office at Ahmedabad. The directors conducted Zoom meetings with investors, displaying videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and quoting that Dholera is the dream project of the PM and that he endorsed the project as its brand ambassador. All investors were promised plots in the Dholera project. They were also offered rewards such as mobile phones, laptops and Royal Enfield motorcycles,” said Guguloth.
The company had launched a Google Play app that gave investors unique IDs to track their balances and investment details. But before shutting operations in January 2023, the accused deleted the app, took down the website, and went into hiding. EOW investigations later revealed that most of the swindled funds were routed through two firms—Nexa Evergreen Developers Dholera and 9 Oak Developers Dholera—which had acquired roughly 1,200 bighas of land in Gujarat’s Dholera region. Records verified with the Dholera sub-registrar confirm about 168 acres so far, said additional CP Guguloth.
She added that Jugal Kishore, a partner and authorised signatory who managed the group’s Delhi branch at Vishwas Nagar, was arrested in the Capital on Wednesday.
