FAISALABAD, April 20: Kotwali police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested four swindlers who allegedly have deprived people of millions of rupees.

The police said that Syed Muzaffar Abbas of Karachi, Mazhar Iqbal of Chiniot, Usman Khattak of Rahim Yar Khan and Muhammad Irfan of Sargodha had set up a fake Smart Business Finance Corporation with its head office in Karachi.

They got printed its receipt books, visiting cards, letter-heads and other material to dodge the innocent people. With the abetment of Raja Amjad Ali of Faisalabad, the accused also set up an office on Circular Road and met local traders especially working in cloth and yarn markets. They offered them Rs20,000 monthly profit on the investment of only Rs100,000.

Scores of traders invested in millions for lust of huge profits. The accused distributed profit to some of their clients for a couple of months to enhance the network of their business. During their meetings with the people, the accused claimed that they were running a registered finance corporation with the permission of the federal government and Syed Muzaffar Abbas was the company's chairman.

In this way, they collected about Rs8 million from over two dozen people in Faisalabad during a short span of one year. They also received huge amounts from the citizens of Karachi, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, and other big cities and disappeared from the scene.

On Tuesday, all the four swindlers visited Faisalabad to meet with their new clients. The police on a tip-off rounded them up and locked them in the Kotwali police station.

The police have registered a case against them under sections 420 and 406 PPC on the report of local trader Farooq Ali of Jail Road, a victim of Rs1 million. Police claimed that the arrested accused came clean of their crime during the preliminary interrogation. According to the accused, they had swindled over Rs20 million from the people in different parts of the country.