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Tausif Reyaz, the CEO, claims he was framed but the police suspect he helped foreigners set up base in India

- Vinay Dalvi

MUMBAI: Police have made their fifth arrest in the high-profile Torres Jewellery scam, an elaborate scheme run by a group of Indians, Ukrainians, an Uzbek national and a Turkish suspect, who defrauded thousands of small investors in and around Mumbai. Tausif Riyaz, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Platinum Hern Private Limited, the holding company of the jewellery chain, was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police from Lonavala on January 26.

Riyaz, who also goes by the alias "John Carter," was arrested from a hotel in Lonavala after being on the run for three weeks. A resident of Virar in Mumbai, Riyaz claims he has been framed and is, in fact, a whistle-blower but police suspect he was a key link who helped the foreigners set up a base in India.

Riyaz's arrest takes the total number of arrests in the case to five. "We have already arrested the stores' general manager Taniya Xasatova alias Tazagul Karaxanovma Xasatova, who is an Uzbek; the company's director Sarvesh Ashok Surve, an Indian; store-in-charge, Valentina Ganesh Kumar, a Russian married to an Indian; and alleged hawala operator, Alpesh Khara, a Charni Road-based store owner," said a police officer investigating the case.

"We are searching for eight Ukrainians and a Turkish individual who are at large. Tausif was wanted since the fraud surfaced on January 6. He went to his hometown in Bihar, from where he fled to Lucknow, and then to Lonavala, where we arrested him," the police officer added.