Heera Group’s founder CEO Nowhera Shaik booked by Pune police

Pune: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – Dr Nowhera Shaik (45), the founder CEO of Hyderabad-based Heera Group, has been booked by Pune city police for allegedly duping 15 persons of Rs 1.65 crores under pretext high returns in gold trading business. She has been arrested by Mumbai Police on October 28 in a similar case.

Makhdoom Haji Mohammad Gaus Siddibilal (67), a resident of Kondhwa, has registered an FIR with Lashkar police station against Nowhere Shaik, Dawood Mehboob Khan from their office in Camp and marketing agent Rehan Shaikh of Raviwar Peth.

According to police, the incident took place between April 2016 and April 2018 at the Heera Group office in New Modikhana near Abeda Inamdar College. The accused persons had promised 35 per cent return on investment in gold trading. However, they did not get the promised return.

Police have charged the accused persons for offences under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Protection Of Interest Of Depositors (MPID) Act.

Who is Nowhera Shaik ?

Nowhera Shaik was born to Shaik Nanne Saheb and Shaik Bilkis into a business family based in Tirupati of Andhra Pradesh on 21 September 1973. As it was common during her childhood, Nowhera spent her early years of education in a madrasa, an Islamic educational institution, of her locality. She was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy from the Open International University, Colombo (Sri Lanka) in Business Management in November 2013.

Nowhera Shaik started her work as an educationist in her nineteenth age by giving lessons in religion and scriptures for merely six girls. In 1998, Shaik started an Islamic school for girls in the name of ‘Madrasa Niswan’ at Tirupati town with around 150 students, mostly from very poor background. 120 students of this school were given free education. In 2017, a residential school was set-up at Chandragiri Village finding income by selling some of her father’s properties. Shaik set up her gold trading business in 1998, which by 2008 grew into The Heera Group, operating in five countries with products and services available in over fifty countries.

What is Heera Group ?

The Heera Group, a consortium of twenty companies is a name well established in India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, other countries of the Gulf, west Africa, Chinaand Canada. An interest free, value based and socially responsible business enterprise is the company’s stated ideal. The logo of the company is ‘In the interest of All Mankind’.

This business enterprise was initially set up as a source of income for the philanthropist activities of Dr. Nowhera Shaik, investing majorly in gold importing. The Heera Group expanded and diversified into various sectors like Gold, Trading, Textile, Jewelry, Mineral Water, Granite, Tours and Travels, Real Estate, Electronics, E-commerce etc. The HeeraMart, the Heera retail chain, have its branches in various places across Andhra Pradesh including Hyderabad. Grand programs were held at its inauguration ceremony at Kukatpally and Tirupati, on 11 and 19 March 2017, respectively.

In 2015, Heera Group launched two of its projects: Heera Foodex and Heeradeals.com. Heera Foodex manufactures, trades and export premium food products, in international market and Heeradeals.com provides an online shopping platform in a range of lifestyle and consumer products for residents of UAE. The group had backed the T10 Cricket League 2017, held during December 14–17, 2017, from Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Controversy and arrests

Hyderabad police on Tuesday(16th October, 2018) arrested Dr Aalima Nowhera Shaikh, chairperson of Heera Gold, on charge of cheating people in the name of deposits under gold scheme. She has been accused of collecting thousands of crores of rupees from thousands of people across the country. Cases have been registered against her at different places in the country, including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Tirupati. Nowhera is also into politics. She is the founder president of All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP). Karnataka police had conducted searches at her residence and offices following complaints that she had collected huge sums from ticket aspirants in the recent Karnataka Assembly elections. Despite her party’s disastrous performance in the Karnataka Elections, she recently announced to contest in the upcoming Telangana elections. Heera Group is a consortium of more than 15 companies having branches in India and abroad. City police commissioner Anjani Kumar said the Central Crime Station (CCS) police had picked up Nowhera from Delhi on Monday. She was brought to Hyderabad and was produced before the local court.

Following a complaint by one of the victims at Banjara Hills police station, the case was transferred to the CCS which arrested her. The CCS has registered a case against her under provisions of the Telangana Deposits and Financial Establishments Act and Indian Penal Code sections 406 and 409 (both related to criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

She was arrested on October 16, 2018 in Delhi by the Central Crime Station (CCS) division of the Telangana police based on an FIR filed with the Banjara Hills police station for cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation. On October 24, 2018 she was granted bail by the Metropolitan Sessions Bench against a deposit of Rs 5 crore and the court had also placed travel restrictions on her. She was released from the Chanchalguda central prison in Hyderabad on October 26, 2018 where the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) was waiting for her. She was arrested in a Rs 500 crore Heera Gold investment fraud case. Mumbai police produced her before a special court in Mumbai on October 26, 2018 and the court remanded her to police custody till November 3, 2018. The Mumbai police arrested Nowhera based on an FIR filed on October 23, 2018 by a Mumbai resident, who had made an investment in Heera Gold. The complainant from Mumbai, was expecting a return of 2.8 to 3.2 per cent on investments and received the returns for a few months. However, the payments stopped from June 2018.

The Mumbai police have filed cases against Nowhera and officials of Heera Gold Exim Ltd, Heera Retail Pvt Ltd, Heera Textiles and Heera Foodex in Mumbai. Based on the complaint lodged in Mumbai the EOW also raided the group’s offices in Bhendi Bazar area of south Mumbai and in Mira Road.