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Dalal was arrested from Uttarakhand after being on the run for 12 days.

Mumbai:

A Mumbai-based investment consultant who was on the run for 12 days after duping more than 600 investors of over Rs 380 crore has been arrested in Uttarakhand. Many celebrities were among his clients, including actors Annu Kapoor and Deepak Sharma. 

The owner of Ritz Consultancy Services, Dalal worked out of the affluent Lokhandwala area in suburban Andheri and promised investors a return of between 1.6% and 2% per month by investing their money in commodities. Different investors had entrusted sums of between Rs 5 lakh on the lower end and several crores on the higher end to him.

Sources in the Mumbai Police said he had been running the business for 15 years and had delivered returns. NDTV spoke to some of his clients, including Mr Kapoor and Mr Sharma, who said Dalal had been giving them the returns consistently, including during the Covid period. 

On March 14, however, Dalal went missing and his family members also said they did not know where he was. His investors, many of whom are senior citizens who had entrusted him with their life savings and depended on the interest from their investment to run their households, began panicking. A police complaint was filed by some investors. 

Police sources said Dalal was tracked down to Dehradun in Uttarakhand, from where he was arrested on Tuesday night. “He was produced in custody and has been remanded in police custody,” said Sangramsingh Nishandar, Deputy Commissioner of Police from the Economic Offences Wing. 

‘Kept Changing Hotels’

While he was on the run for 12 days, Dalal took several steps to remain undetected. Sources said he is suspected to have gone to other states before ending up in Uttarakhand and changed hotels several times in that short period so that he would not be traced. 

The sources said since Dalal had operated in Lokhandwala – which is home to several people from the film industry – for a long time, he counted many celebrities among his clients. “Mr Kapoor and Mr Sharma are the only two well-known faces to have come forward so far, but there are many more,” said an official.

While investors are hoping to get at least their principal amount back after Dalal’s arrest, police are yet to establish what the money was actually used for. They are also trying to find out how he had managed to deliver the returns so far and the circumstances that prompted him to stop doing so and try and disappear.