How a con woman used sharia law to dupe investors of Rs 6,000 crore

NEW DELHI: ED has come across a case where the prime targets of a scam were Muslims following sharia law, which prohibits earning interest on investments. The perpetrators targeted unsuspecting persons with a promise of profits of up to 36% per annum on their investment, and within a few years collected over Rs 6,000 crore.

The scam was masterminded by a woman, Nowhera Shaik, based out of Hyderabad. She was arrested last week at a hotel in Gurgaon, after being on the run for more than a month after Supreme Court cancelled her bail and asked her to surrender.

The con woman even tricked the courts and enforcement agencies several times. She even tried to mislead SC, saying she had surrendered before the Hyderabad police but they had refused to take her into custody.

More than Rs 400 crore of assets beneficially owned and controlled by her have been confiscated and are in the process of being restituted to the victims.

"Nowhera Shaik, her family members and other associates lured lakhs of people into investing in their Ponzi schemes," a senior ED official said. The huge profits were given to initial investors, but 1.7 lakh others lost their deposits. A probe was ordered by SC and subsequently all assets attached by ED were ordered to be confiscated and disposed of for their restitution.

The woman and her associates filed multiple affidavits and claims, further delaying the sale of the assets. One of her associates, claiming to be 'Kalyan Banerjee', impersonated a PMO official to derail the SC order on the sale of assets and their restitution. He was arrested in Jan.

The agency in 2024, during a search at her residence, seized 12 vehicles, including a BMW, a Mercedes Benz, a Mahindra Scorpio, multiple Toyota Fortuners, and cash worth Rs 92 lakh.