New Delhi,  The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrested a 70-year-old mine mafia and economic fugitive involved in multiple cases of fraud to the tune of approximately Rs 100 crore, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused, identified as Pradeep Paliwal alias Mahesh Gupta, was a proclaimed offender and on the run for the past seven years.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing) Chhaya Sharma, during a media briefing said, in January, 2014 accused Pradeep Paliwal induced the complainant to invest Rs 20 crore in his business of granite mining in Rajasthan and assured to pay him Rs 50 lakhs per month. On these assurances, the complainant agreed to invest and an MoU was executed between both of them. The complainants paid Rs 13.45 crore through cheques/RTGS and Rs 3.15 crore in cash from February 2014 to September 2014.

However, the accused failed to fulfill his promise. Accordingly, a case under section 420, 406 and 120 B of the IPC was registered by the Delhi Police's EOW in 2017.

After commission of offence, accused Pradeep Paliwal shifted his hideouts from Delhi to other states i.e. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi. As he was a wanted criminal and he used to travel in these states by his private Pajero, registered on the name of his business partner just to avoid flights as his LOC was opened.

"He never stayed at a single location for more than 24 hours. He used to travel thousands of kilometers though his vehicles only even from Punjab to Karnataka," the Jt CP said.

The accused was using telegram accounts connected with unknown sources of Internet and also used a mobile number of Zimbabwe. During investigation, his source of the internet was identified and found that these numbers were registered on fake IDs. "After analysis of technical and manual surveillance the location of the accused person was traced near Park Hotel, Shahdara. All vehicles parked in the hotel were checked where one vehicle bearing Rajasthan registration number (White Pajero) was found parked," the senior official said.

When the police ascertained all the facts, accused Pradeep Paliwal was nabbed near Cross River Mall, Karkardooma, Delhi along with his associate Vinayak Bhatt. "Vinayak Bhatt was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation as he was wanted in one of their cases. Further, interrogation and investigation of the case is going on," said the official.

Sharing other economic offences committed by the accused, Jt CP Sharma said in 2006, the accused Paliwal reportedly got a HSIDC plot registered in his name with the help of forged papers regarding which FIR was lodged at Udyog Vihar police station, Gurgaon. Nine years later in 2015, the accused obtained a loan from HDFC Bank to the tune of Rs 12 crore on already mortgaged property on which an FIR was lodged at Karol Bagh police station. The said FIR is being investigated by EOW.

In 2018, the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case as his loan account became NPA due to non-payment of loan amount of Rs 28 crore. His company Holystar is also under scanner of Directorate of Enforcement, the official added.