New Delhi: In a major crackdown, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on Saturday arrested the mastermind and chief plotter behind a slew of China-linked shell companies in India.
According to reports, the mastermind and chief plotter, identified as Dortse, had fled from Delhi NCR to a remote place in Bihar and was attempting to escape India through the road route.
He had shown himself to be a resident of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh as per the records filed with the Registrar of Companies.
“Immediately, a special team was constituted in SFIO which was deputed to the said remote place. In the evening of September 10, SFIO arrested Dortse, who was later produced in the Jurisdictional Court and orders for his transit remand were obtained,” the ministry said in a media release.
After the simultaneous search and seizure operations conducted by the ministry on September 8 on the offices of Jillian Consultants India Pvt Ltd in Gurgaon, Fininty Pvt Ltd in Bengaluru and Husys Consulting Ltd (an erstwhile listed company in Hyderabad), SFIO arrested Dortse.
The official release said Dortse is on the board of Jillian Consultants India Pvt Ltd and has clearly emerged as the mastermind of the whole racket of incorporating large number of shell companies with Chinese links in India and providing dummy directors on their boards.
“Evidence procured during the enquiry by ROC (Registrar of Companies) Delhi and the simultaneous search operations clearly points to dummy directors being paid by Jillian India Ltd to act as dummies in several shell companies,” the ministry said.
It further said that boxes filled with company seals and digital signatures of dummy directors have been recovered from the site. “The Indian employees were in touch with their Chinese counterparts through a Chinese instant messaging app,” it said.
