Hyderabad: Grocer a director in Chinese company running gambling racket

HYDERABAD: How did smalltime grocer from Delhi become a director in a Chinese company that allegedly ran an illegal online gambling racket in India worth more than Rs 1,000 crore?

Police officers in Hyderabad are trying to answer this question after Neeraj Tuli, one of the three Indian directors held along with a Chinese national, told investigators that he was just an ordinary grocer who ran a small neighbourhood shop as an extension of his home in Delhi’s Karol Bagh area. He claimed he had no clue that his name was being used to run the company and found out about it only when cops reached his doorstep.

Tuli accused his chartered accountant neighbor, P Hemant, of tricking him into signing some documents which made him part of the business without his knowledge. Officials are on the lookout for Hemant who is missing.


“Tuli claimed that Hemant, under the pretext of helping him audit his accounts, got many documents signed by him. He said he did not know that Hemant would use them to make him a dummy director in Chinese firms. It is true that Tuli is a grocer, but we are not taking his claims at face value. He will be grilled further,’’ said a senior officer.

8 firms registered in India between ‘19 & ‘20
Investigators are believed to have produced various documents in Tuli’s name, which declared him a director of various firms operating under Beijing T Power based out of China.

The eight firms – Growing Info Tech Pvt Ltd, Sily Consulting Services Pvt Ltd, Pan Yun Technology Services, Linkyun Technology Pvt Ltd, Dokypay Technology Pvt Ltd, SpotPay Technology India Pvt Ltd, Daisylink Financial Pvt Ltd and Huahuo Financial Pvt Ltd — were registered in India either in 2019 or 2020. All the firms belong to Beijing T Power, which was establishing new companies and running online gambling by admitting members only through references. Payment was accepted through different e-payment gateways.

The two other directors —Dheeraj Sarkar and Ankit Kapoor — were aware of the cheating, police said. “The key accused, Chinese national Yah Hao and Hemant officially have not been directors in any of these firms in India. But, they ran India operations and ensured transfer of hundreds of crores rupees to China,’’ an official added. English-speaking Yah Hao is generally tasked with studying the market potential in various countries.