Guwahati, Sep 9: The controversial Assamese actress and choreographer Sumi Borah, whose name surfaced in a Rs 2,200 crore online trading scam and has been evading arrest, had Rs 20 crore deposited in her bank account by the kingpin of the scam. This has come to light during the probe, sources said here. The kingpin of the multi-crore online trading scam, Bishal Phukan, splurged huge amounts on her.
A senior police official told IANS on Monday, “Phukan spent Rs 1 crore buying expensive clothes for Sumi Borah. He also gave her another Rs 2.5 crore for an abroad tour. In just two months, Rs 20 crore was transferred into Borah’s bank account by Phukan. It has been apprehended that the actress helped the prime accused to get at least Rs 100 crore investments that included important people outside the state as well.”
According to police, Phukan has more than Rs 100 crore in one of his SBI accounts in Assam. Actress Borah lured people to invest in Phukan’s company to get much higher returns through online trading. Police questioned an interior designer who did the designing work of Phukan’s lavish office in Dibrugarh town. The designer was paid an advanced amount of Rs 44 lakh for the work.
Borah hails from Dibrugarh and started her career as a dancer. She acted in a few Assamese movies and also did choreography. Bishal Phukan is also a native of Dibrugarh and calls Borah his sister. According to police, Phukan used Borah’s network in the Assamese film industry and was successful in getting clients who invested in Phukan’s company in the greed of higher returns.
“Bishal used to throw lavish parties in Guwahati for people from Assamese movie industries in the luxurious hotels in the city. The attendees of the party were lured through expensive gifts by the fraudster. Sumi Borah helped him in getting clients and Phukan used to reward her with a commission. With the help of the actress, Bishal got a good number of clients who invested amounts in online trading for getting higher returns,” police claimed.
Sumi Borah married photographer Tarkik Borah in the previous year in a destination wedding in Rajasthan’s Udaipur city. People from the Assamese movie industry were flown to Udaipur and the expenses were taken care of by Bishal Phukan. He reportedly spent at least Rs 5 crore on Sumi Borah’s extravagant wedding.
The Assam Police uncovered a large financial scam involving brokers who made false online stock market investments by promising to double the money, totalling Rs 2,200 crore last week. Police have so far arrested 39 people for their alleged involvement in the scam, including two prime accused Dibrugarh resident Bishal Phukan, a 22-year-old Internet trader and a native of Guwahati, Swapnanil Das.
The case is being probed by Assam Police's SIT.
