How long can you hide? In the case of Nilesh Raikar, it was about a week. The man accused of duping investors of crores of rupees surrendered before the economic offences cell on Friday after a look-out notice was issued against him and his family. The picture put together by the police is that of a man who wanted more and lost all on the stock exchange. As he kept losing money he floated an illegal fixed deposit scheme to finance his stock market dream and then took out loans from banks to pay back his investors. On the face of it, this appears to be a classic case of using good money to
chase bad. But there is more to it than meets the eye. How did he remain under the radar for so long? How did banks lend him money when he was making losses. When he approached banks for loans it should have set off alarm bells. If not, then this is another Vijay Mallya scandal in the making, but on a smaller scale. The police must enlarge its investigation to include banks and the RBI which ought to have kept a check on
the financial transactions of the company run by Raikar. This case is a reminder for depositors who ought to be more circumspect while making investments.
