Pune: Man Arrested For Cheating People Using Name of Art of Living
Pune, November 23, 2020: The officials from Crime Branch of Pune City police have arrested a man who allegedly cheated people of crores of rupees under the pretext of investment in various schemes of the Art of Living (AOL).
The arrested accused has been identified as Pranay Uday Khare, a resident of Kondhwa. An FIR has been registered against him at Chatushrungi police station.
DCP (Crime Branch) Bachchan Singh said, “Unit-4 has arrested accused Pranay Khare who used the name of Art of Living foundation to attract investors for his fraudulent business. He claimed to create a company JK ventures to buy 7000 acres land in Ratnagiri for moringa farming and cheated them. The current complainant was cheated of Rs 1.45 Crore. There may be more such victims of fraud. A judicial magistrate court has remanded the accused to four days of police custody for further investigation.”
According to police, the Art of Living is headquartered in Bengaluru. It has branches all over the country and this organization does important work of training people in meditation and convincing them of the importance of meditation. It also has branches in Pune. The accused pretended to be the District Development Coordinator (DDC) of AOL and claimed he has a joint venture firm, JK Venture, with Art of Living. He lured people about various financial investment schemes and took huge sums of money from them.
Police said that the accused also operated firms Vistar 360, The Yogik, AHO Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd. and Pranals Media Pvt. Ltd. “Investigations have revealed that he has set up companies and through them, he has deceived many people in Pune city and outside Pune city through the above scheme. Citizens are being urged to come forward and contact Crime Branch Unit-4 office at Rangehills, Khadki if anyone has been cheated in this manner”, police said in a statement.
The action was taken under the guidance of Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Morale, DCP Bachchan Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police Laxman Borate and Police Inspector Rajnish Nirmal. The team included Police Sub-Inspector Deepak Mane, Shashikant Shinde and Gita Patil, ASI Shankar Patil, Head Constables Ganesh Salunke, Rajas Sheikh, Police Naik Surendra Sable, Sachin Dhawale, Pravin Karale, Pravin Bhalchim, Nagesh Kumar and Dattatraya Fulsundar.
