4% monthly returns, Rs 670 crore gone: How Hyderabad man, once a mason, duped 7,400 investors

A man who once worked as a mason and a petrol pump attendant is the alleged mastermind of a Rs 670-crore investment scam that duped around 7,400 investors across the country by promising returns of about 4 per cent a month, The Times of India reported.

The Cyberabad Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is investigating three cases against Nanavath Bhupal Naik, a native of Telangana’s Vikarabad district. Police have so far traced only about Rs 35 lakh in the 70 bank accounts linked to his companies and their directors, the report said.

From masonry to stock broking

After completing Class 10, Naik struggled to clear his Intermediate exams, according to the EOW. As a teenager, he accompanied his father to Hyderabad and helped him with masonry work, and later worked at a petrol pump before moving into financial services.

“He claimed to have completed his Intermediate and obtained a degree through open schooling and correspondence,” an EOW official was quoted by TOI as saying.

In 2013-14, Naik joined a stock brokerage firm as an agent, where he built relationships with several clients. In 2016, he opened a franchise of the same brokerage firm in Kukatpally. The same year, he registered Kisaan Parivar Ltd (KPL), ostensibly to promote organic farming by pooling land from marginal farmers, but the company stayed inactive for several years.

In 2020, he launched Shares Bazaar Pvt Ltd (SBPL), an algorithm-based stock trading firm.

4% a month, paid from new investors’ money

Using his existing client network and online promotions that promised returns of around 4 per cent a month, Naik drew investors into both companies, especially from 2022-23 onwards, police said. That works out to roughly 48 per cent a year, far above what any regulated investment offers.

SBPL did not have the permission needed to collect deposits, but Naik allegedly raised money from investors anyway.

“Bhupal Naik rotated funds collected from new investors to pay returns to earlier investors until the arrangement became unsustainable in 2025,” an EOW official was quoted by TOI as saying.

Land scheme: 5 guntas for Rs 12.5 lakh, ‘24% tax-free return’

Through KPL, investors were offered five guntas of land for an investment of Rs 12.5 lakh, with a promised 24 per cent tax-free return and a 12-month lock-in, according to the report.

45 properties identified, Kondapur villa among them

The EOW has received over 500 complaints against Naik. Cyberabad police have identified 45 properties for attachment, including 140 acres of agricultural land bought in Mahbubabad, Wanaparthy and Sangareddy. Of this, 70 acres are registered in the names of KPL investors under the land scheme.

Police have also identified two commercial properties measuring about 10,000 square feet, and a villa in Kondapur.

In a bail application filed in a local court in LB Nagar in August, Naik described himself as “a permanent resident of villa number 5 of a gated society in Kondapur, who hails from a respectable poor family without any criminal antecedents,” TOI reported. Online property listings show villas in the same community currently priced between Rs 6.8 crore and Rs 10 crore.

Cases in 4 more states, eyed 2023 Telangana polls

Besides the three cases being probed by the Cyberabad EOW, five cases have been registered against SBPL, KPL and their directors in Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. Naik has already been arrested in the Punjab and Gujarat cases and remains in jail, police said.

“He wanted to contest the Telangana assembly elections in 2023 and spent money towards that, but could not secure a ticket,” an official was quoted by TOI as saying.

The EOW has ordered a forensic audit of the two companies, which is expected to be completed this month.