Reports: Shubman Gill, GT players to be summoned by CID over INR 450-crore chit fund scam

Latest development has revealed that four players including Shubman Gill, Mohit Sharma, Rahul Tewatia, and Sai Sudharsan have supposedly lost an undisclosed sum of the money they had invested in a chit fund. The Gujarat CID Crime Branch will be calling upon the cricketers, all of whom who had played for Gujarat Titans the previous IPL season, at a later date to learn the specific details from them, as per Ahmedabad Mirror. This is in relation to a multi-crore chit fund scam. 

According to reports from Ahmedabad Mirror, the international cricketers will be called for questioning by the law enforcement to know further details about the alleged INR 450-crore chit-fund scam, in which the players had put and lost their investments.

The investigation is reported to follow the questioning of the kingpin of the Ponzi scheme, Bhupendrasinh Zala. Zala admitted to not having repaid the money put in by these cricketers in his BZ scheme.

As per the top CID officials, Gill, who captained Gujarat Titans last season, is believed to have invested INR 1.95 crore. On the other hand, Mohit, Tewatia, and Sudharsan made comparatively inferior investments. The same set of CID personnel have cited that the cricketers will be called in for questioning at a later date. The exact date has not been specified yet.

The crime unit had called Zala's chartered accountant, Rushik Mehta, for questioning into the matter. Zala's financials were handled by Mehta, a Sabarkantha district resident.   

"If Mehta is found to be involved, appropriate action will be taken. We have also deployed a team of accountants to examine bank transactions and an unofficial account book maintained by Zala. The unofficial book has been seized, and raids are continuing at various locations since Monday," stated a senior CID official, as quoted by the same publication.

The duped amount was disclosed to be INR 6,000 crore. However, upon further investigations, the amount has been reduced to INR 450 crore. 

"Zala also maintained an unofficial account book, which has been seized by the CID crime unit. The transactions recorded in that book amount to around Rs. 52 crore. Based on current investigations, we estimate the total amount to be around Rs. 450 crore, and it may increase as raids continue," added the same official.

The same crime unit of the CID took political figure from Mehsana, Kiran Singh Chauhan, into custody. Chauhan had provided shelter to Zala at the former's farmhouse in a village in Davada. Chauhan, who is also the president of the Kshatriya Sena, is revealed to share a prolonged bond with Zala. His maternal uncle reportedly once held the position of president of the Congress district in Mehsana, and currently serves as Karni Sena Pramukh in the same locality.