04-07-2025
Videos hint at 2.6cr property fraud by trader's kin
Lucknow: Days after cloth trader Shobhit Rastogi, his wife and daughter died by suicide due to financial problems and failure to repay loans, two videos have surfaced which indicate that his brother-in-law, Vivek Siddharth, had allegedly usurped properties worth Rs 2.6 crore and misled him to take a loan of Rs 70 lakh, police said.
In the videos, the name of Atul Gupta, a Nepalgunj-based man, is also mentioned who is accused of harassment.
Following a complaint by Shobhit's brother, police on Wednesday arrested Vivek and his wife Mudita on charges of abetting suicide.
According to police, Shobhit accused Vivek of usurping properties worth Rs 2.6 crore, including a house worth Rs1 crore, another property worth Rs 1 crore, and a shop worth Rs 60 lakh.
Through the videos, police came to know that Vivek and Mudita allegedly took Rs 22 lakh, both in cash and online transfers, from Shobhit.
Shobhit took loans worth Rs 70 lakh from banks and private lenders to invest in what he believed were joint family properties.
"The videos, 3.06 and 3.45 minutes in length, were recorded by Shobhit and his wife inside their home. In the videos, they alleged that Atul Gupta from Nepalgunj had been threatening Shobhit since 2016 and once even put a pistol to his chest.
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Shobhit claimed Atul sent goons to his house and threatened his mother-in-law. Atul reportedly runs a restaurant called 'Little Hunger' in Nepalgunj and was connected to Vivek and Mudita," a police officer said.
"Police investigations reveal that Shobhit was lured with promises of land deals and property shares from his in-laws. Believing he would receive his rightful share in ancestral property, he took a Rs 28.5 lakh loan from a finance company and handed it to Vivek. However, he defaulted on repayments after which recovery agents began harassing him," he said.
"In her suicide note, Shobhit's wife Suchita wrote that her own family — her mother, sister Mudita, and brother-in-law Vivek — were responsible for pushing them into massive debt.," the officer said.
