December 10: For once, Sai-leela is not delivering. Within months of the massive fraud perpetrated by Ashok Sheregar, another bogus "double your money" scheme has robbed nearly 500 police families of their hard-earned life's savings.

The key to this more than Rs 50 lakhs fraud, grandly labelled the "Sai-Leela Yojana," lies with Hemant and Nitin Nikam, the sons of an assistant police inspector. Nitin has a similarity with Ashok Sheregar: he is also a BEST employee.

Residents of the Worli police camp, Hemant and Nitin systematically created the "Sai-leela" fad in their colony by offering doubled amounts in a fortnight to subscribers of their scheme and misled nearly 500 families of police personnel. The scheme was launched on the "auspicious" day of August 15, 1997. Operating from a small shanty in the Worli camp, the Nikam brothers began collecting money from senior and junior members of the police department. When they actually returned doubled amounts to some clients, the scheme gained in popularity.

Cashing in on the craze, the Nikams wooed more customers from senior police ranks. Soon, they brought in one Shekar Mahajan to assist them. It is alleged that Mahajan's father is close to State Home Minister Gopinath Munde. The scheme, thus, gained greater legitimacy in the colony. The Worli police camp has over 70 buildings and houses 1,500 police personnel and their families, and every third family in the colony subscribed to the scheme.

The subscribers realised things were not all right when, after collecting nearly Rs 50 lakhs in over two months, the Nikams began avoiding their clients. The Nikam brothers also shifted their residence from Worli camp (building No. 35, 3rd floor) to Thakur Complex in Kandivli, their disappearance sending shock waves in the Worli colony.

Today, the nearly 500 investor families await the Yojana's returns. Many cops have given their provident fund amounts to the Nikams, and some women have sold traditional family jewellery to reap the scheme's fruits. Surprisingly, however, no one has dared to lodge a police complaint. The reason could be the cleverly worded receipt given to each subscriber which cautions customers against "premature closure" and states that "if the scheme faces any problem, half the amount will be returned. This condition is acceptable to the client." Plus, one of the subscribers said, pleading anonymity, "The Nikams have assured us that they will return half our investment amount by December 20, so we have decided to wait till then."

Surprisingly, none of the otherwise "alert" cops who got fleeced bothered to ask the Nikams for a "pucca" receipt while depositing their amounts.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.