Ex-principal now UP's most wanted woman criminal

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Advitya Bahl / TNN / Updated: Apr 23, 2023, 04:33 IST

Deepti was made additional director of the Bike Bot company in 2017

NOIDA: Principal of a college in Baghpat not too long ago, Deepti Bahal today has three
different criminal records investigation agencies looking for her as the most wanted
woman in the state with a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on her capture.

Deepti, who lived in Loni, is one of the key accused in the Bike Bot scam. She is the wife
of mastermind Sanjay Bhati, who ran the operation from Noida in the garb of promoting a
bike taxi venture. Probe agencies have come up with different estimates about the scale
of the fraud as its threads have run into state after state. The Meerut economic offences
wing, which is probing the case, estimates it to be at Rs 4,500 crore with more than 250
cases registered across the country. Deepti, who is in her 40s, has been absconding
since the first cases in the scam were filed in 2019.

Deepti has been at large since first cases in Bike Bot scam filed in 2019
Noida: Deepti Bahal, who lived in Loni, is one of the main accused in the
Bike Bot scam.
An EOW official in Meerut told TOI that in 2019, the UP Police investigating the scam
found her husband Sanjay Bhati and his family members incorporated a real estate
company called Garvit Innovative Promoters Limited (GIPL) on August 20, 2010. This
company, being run from Greater Noida, became the promoter of Bike Bot.

"In August 2017, Bhati launched the scheme - 'Bike Bot - the bike taxi powered by GIPL'
through his firm and Deepti was made additional director in the company," the official
said.
During
one of the court hearings, her lawyer, however, claimed that she was a non-
executive director of the company and had resigned from the firm on February 14, 2017.

Deepti, who is in her 40s, has been absconding since the first cases in the Bike Bot scam
were filed in 2019. "During the investigation, we found that she was a teacher in Baghpat
before marriage. However, no proper record of her existence in the college was found,"
the official said.

TOI found that the website of Baraut College of Education, Baghpat

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(barautcollegeofeducation.org) mentions Deepti as its principal. It also mentions Deepti
holds an MA and a PhD. The college is affiliated with Chaudhary Charan Singh
University.

The first bounty on Deepti's capture, of Rs 50,000, was announced in 2020 by the EOW.
In March 2021, investigating agencies attached her residence in Loni. Earlier, teams that
searched her house in Meerut found she had left the city around 10 years back.
Last year, the Supreme Court issued an order to club all the cases filed in the scam.

Sources told TOI that Deepti may have fled the country soon after. Currently, proceedings
to issue a red corner notice against Deepti and Bhudev Singh, another accused in the
case, are under way.
"Deepti is named in all
the 118 cases registered in Greater Noida and over 150 others
filed across the country. Thirty-one people and 13 companies, used for money laundering,
have been named in the chargesheet," the official said.
So far, police have impounded vehicles - a Range Rover
and a Fortuner among them -
registered in the name of Garvit Innovators. Assets worth over Rs 216 crore have also
been seized.

The Bike Bot scheme promised large returns to customers on their investment in
motorcycles that were supposed to be used as two-wheeler taxis. Investors were asked
to pay Rs 62,100 for one bike. The company offered an EMI of Rs 5,175 per month and
fixed the rental at Rs 4,590 per bike per month. The scheme also included a monthly
rental income bonus of 5% per bike. To gain the trust of investors, the company signed an
agreement with them assuring their money was safe and the return on investment was
secure.

An FIR filed with the CBI reads: "It is further alleged that in order to extract money from
investors, the company put out advertisements like 'Bike bot - the bike taxi powered by
GIPL scheme will be enclosed very soon and that persons desirous to avail this scheme
must deposit money hurriedly. On such advertisements, about 2 lakh investors invested
money."
The scheme
was floated in August 2017 and the process of collecting money from
investors and issuing repayments to them went on till early 2019. In November 2018, the
company floated another scheme for e-bikes. The subscription amount for the e-bikes
was almost double the investment amounts for regular petrol bikes.

In 2019, nearly two lakh investors who participated in the scheme approached the police
and filed complaints against Bhati and his firm when they did not receive the returns
promised to them.

The CBI probe is also looking into the role of Noida officials. "... (the) fact remains that
complaints were submitted and fraudulent activity of the company was in the knowledge
of the Noida district authority as well as police authorities who did not take any action.
Rather, the SSP and SP crime branch pressured the complainants to withdraw their
complaints," reads the CBI's FIR.

Later, the Enforcement Directorate initiated a money-laundering investigation into the

scam on the basis of various FIRs registered at Dadri police station against Garvit
Innovative Promoters Ltd, Sanjay Bhati and others. Bhati surrendered before a local court
in Surajpur in 2019.

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