A massive investment fraud case has emerged from Hyderabad, with authorities investigating an alleged Rs 670-crore scheme that has reportedly affected approximately 7,400 investors across India. At the centre of the probe is Nanavath Bhupal Naik, a native of Telangana’s Vikarabad district, who stands accused of running a complex operation through two entities: Shares Bazaar Pvt Ltd (SBPL) and Kisaan Parivar Ltd (KPL).
The Cyberabad Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered three cases linked to the fraud. According to investigators, the operation gained significant traction between 2022 and 2023, drawing in thousands of people by promising monthly returns of around 4%. Officials allege that the scheme functioned as a classic Ponzi operation, where money from new participants was used to pay off existing investors, a structure that eventually became unsustainable in 2025.
The background of the accused has drawn considerable attention from the authorities. Before establishing his presence in the financial services sector, Naik reportedly worked as a mason and a petrol pump attendant. He entered the stock market industry around 2013-14 as an agent for a brokerage firm. This role allowed him to cultivate a client network, which police believe became instrumental in expanding his reach when he began his own ventures. By 2016, he had opened a brokerage franchise in Hyderabad and registered Kisaan Parivar Ltd, a company initially positioned to promote organic farming through pooled agricultural land.
The investigation reveals that SBPL was launched in 2020 as a stock trading platform. Police assert that the company lacked the necessary legal authorisation to collect deposits from the public. One of the primary schemes offered under Kisaan Parivar involved an investment of Rs 12.5 lakh, which promised registration of five guntas of agricultural land and a 24% tax-free return after a 12-month lock-in period. Investigators have since identified roughly 140 acres of land in districts including Mahbubabad, Wanaparthy, and Sangareddy that are purportedly linked to these transactions.
The scope of the investigation has expanded well beyond Telangana, with cases now registered against the accused and his firms in Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh. Naik has already been arrested in connection with legal proceedings in Gujarat and Punjab and is currently held in judicial custody. The Cyberabad EOW has received over 500 individual complaints from affected investors to date.
Authorities have taken aggressive steps to trace assets associated with the alleged fraud. To date, the EOW has identified 70 bank accounts linked to the companies and their directors, though only Rs 35 lakh remained in these accounts at the time of the discovery. Furthermore, police have identified 45 properties for potential attachment, including agricultural holdings, commercial spaces, and a villa in Kondapur, Hyderabad. While Naik claimed in a bail application that he belonged to a "respectable poor family," online listings suggest that the value of properties in his gated community ranges between Rs 6.8 crore and Rs 10 crore.
Moving forward, the EOW is conducting a thorough forensic examination of the companies' financial structures and investor records. This process aims to quantify the total scale of the fraud and establish a clearer picture of how investor capital was diverted. As the legal process unfolds across multiple states, investigators continue to review property transactions to ensure that assets can be secured for the benefit of the defrauded investors.
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