A couple was arrested in Hyderabad on Thursday for allegedly cheating the public of over Rs 1.2 crore on the promise of doubling their money, police said.

The woman is in-charge for Universal Islamic Research Center (UIRC) sisters wing of Malakpet area here and her husband is the founder member and general secretary of UIRC Hyderabad, a release from Hyderabad Police said.

The duo lured Muslim women to invest money in three schemes run by them and also an Islamic Public School with a promise to double their money and returns and collected Rs 1.2 crore from them, police said. According to Deccan Chronicle, the man, Siraj-ur-Rahman, and his wife Bushra Begum, allegedly convinced people to invest their money in the ‘Heera Group companies like Heera Gold, Heera Foodex and Heera Retail and IPS.’

However, they failed to give any returns nor the deposited amounts after which two cases were registered against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Telangana Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishment Act, police said.

Further investigation led to their arrest, police said.

Hyderabad has witnessed some major cases of financial fraud in the past, including the Heera Gold halal ponzi scheme which has scammed not just residents of Hyderabad, but thousands of people across India and the world. In another case, a lucky draw scheme was used to extract money from victims on the promise of seemingly lucrative gifts. 

Halal investments are a form of non-interest-paying investments conforming to the Islamic Sharia laws. Unlike fixed bank interest rates, which are considered to be anti-Islam, halal schemes sell their plans as a form of partnership business with the promise of high returns. Such schemes usually promise much higher returns than banks. While Heera Gold promised a 36% partnership return on investments, the Malakpet couple had promised to double the investment amount. 

With PTI inputs