Lucknow, Feb 25 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force (STF) has arrested B.N. Tiwari, said to be the mastermind of the bike boat scam and owner of a private news channel.

He was arrested from Gomti Nagar area on Thursday. Tiwari carried a reward of Rs 50,000 and the STF had been searching for him for several months.

The bike boat scam is worth Rs 3500 crore and came to light in 2019.

A company named Proud Innovative Promoters Limited launched a ponzi scheme called Bike Boat.

People were assured that a bike would cost Rs 62,000 and the members would get a monthly return of Rs 9,765. Thousands of members were cheated by the company.

The Enforcement Directorate is also investigating the case.

The owner of the bike boat company Sanjay Bhati along with partners Sanjay Goyal, Vijaypal Kasana, Vinod Kumar, Vishal Kumar, Harish Kumar, Rajesh Yadav, Rajesh Bhardwaj, Vinod, Pushpendra, Sunil, Adesh Bhati and Sunil Kumar are currently in jail.