New Delhi, March 21 (IANS): A 34-year-old carpenter has been arrested for cheating thousands of people of crores of rupees by luring them to invest in a ponzi scheme in 2008 promising hefty returns in a short period, the police said on Saturday.

Satnam Singh was arrested on Friday when a team of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) tracked a bank account being operated by him. This led them to his current address in Chandigarh.

Singh, who is a carpenter by profession, had targeted thousands of small depositors in 2008 by offering them schemes with small initial deposit of Rs. 300, Rs. 1,500, and Rs. 12,000 in his company NGP private limited.

Police said that he had started his company in Delhi in February 2008 and till the end of August 2008 had collected more than Rs. 1.5 crores from thousands of victims before disappearing.

"A case of cheating was registered against Satnam Singh in 2008, and he was absconding since then," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW), Rajneesh Garg told IANS.

Garg said that Singh was cheated by a multi-level marketing company before 2008.

"Later, he himself float such a company...," Garg said.

"To bring more people into his trap, he initially gave gifts to the depositors and offered handsome incentives to agents who brought depositors," Garg said.

The official said that Singh closed his company office and went underground when the depositors started demanding their returns after the lapse of the maturity period.

Police are still searching for his brother-in-law Jasbir Singh, another director of the company.