New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police has unearthed a massive ponzi scheme scam with the arrest of the kingpin of a racket cheating over hundreds of people.

More than 34 complainants had alleged in a joint complaint that the kingpin, identified as Shivam Chaturvedi, was running a kitty committee scheme in the name of Shiv-OM Jewellers, which induced them to invest in the alleged firm with 100 per cent assured return in the form of gold on monthly basis.

On the basis of Chaturvedi's false and lucrative representation, a large number of people fell prey in the trap and invested their hard-earned money in the alleged firm.

After the accused persons collected more than Rs 14 lakh from the victims, they deliberately stopped to return the assured gold articles promised to them, shut down their office premises, switched off their phones and disappeared.

Chaturvedi initially used to run the jewellery shop in the name of SHIV-OM Jeweller with his parents and parallelly indulged in the business of kitty committee. The accused was arrested from Gurugram on Wednesday.

"After the demise of his father, Chaturvedi started his own business and allured investors to invest in the scheme. On the assurance of good returns in the form of gold, the investors were allured to join the monthly lucky draw," said OP Mishra, Joint CP, EOW.