ED attaches Rs 13.41 crore in Assam DB Stock Consultancy Ponzi case

What the Record Shows

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Guwahati Zonal Office, has issued a Provisional Attachment Order under Section 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, attaching properties worth about Rs 13.41 crore in connection with an investigation against M/s DB Stock Consultancy and its proprietor Deepankar Barman and others. Per the ED's press release dated 24 March 2026, a provisional attachment is an investigation-stage step that must be confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority; it is not a conviction.

Per the ED, the investigation was initiated under the PMLA on the basis of FIR No. 288/2024 dated 21 August 2024, registered by Paltan Bazar Police Station, Guwahati, which was subsequently re-registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as RC2212024E0013 dated 14 October 2024. The CBI case invokes Sections 3(5), 316(5) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and Section 21 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 (the BUDS Act).

The ED states that its investigation found DB Stock Consultancy, a proprietorship firm owned by Deepankar Barman, operated an unregulated deposit scheme from Guwahati between 2021 and August 2024. Per the ED, the firm collected deposits from the public under five schemes promising unusually high returns ranging from 1.25 per cent weekly to 120 per cent annually, and the accused induced approximately 15,507 investors across India to deposit about Rs 400.14 crore.

The matter sits within a wider cluster of investment-fraud cases in Assam; per the state government, 41 such cases were referred to the CBI in 2024. A chargesheet contains allegations, not findings of guilt, and every person named is an accused presumed innocent unless a court convicts them.

How It Worked

The account that follows is the ED's investigative finding and the allegation in the criminal case; it is pending trial and has not been established by any court. Per the ED, DB Stock Consultancy marketed five deposit schemes offering assured returns as high as 1.25 per cent a week or 120 per cent a year, figures far beyond anything a legitimate business could sustain.

According to the ED, recruitment ran through promotional events at educational institutions, WhatsApp groups and word-of-mouth referrals, and on that basis the accused induced about 15,507 investors across India to hand over roughly Rs 400.14 crore. The ED alleges the firm operated a classic Ponzi scheme, in which payments to earlier investors were made from funds collected from later ones, and that it had no sustainable business model capable of generating the assured returns promised.

Per the ED, the firm was neither registered as a non-banking financial company nor authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to accept public deposits, and therefore operated in contravention of Section 45S of the RBI Act, 1934 and Section 3 of the BUDS Act, 2019. The ED states that the main accused, Deepankar Barman, absconded on 18 August 2024 when the scheme collapsed following a decline in fresh deposit inflows, leaving thousands of investors without their promised returns or principal; he was subsequently arrested by the Assam Police and by the CBI.

The attached assets, worth about Rs 13.41 crore, comprise immovable properties worth about Rs 8.71 crore, being 13 properties including flats, land and office spaces in Guwahati, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, and movable assets worth about Rs 4.70 crore, being 27 bank accounts holding about Rs 4.04 crore and mutual fund and equity investments of about Rs 66 lakh. Provisional attachment and arrest are stages in the process, not findings of guilt.

Who Lost Money

Per the ED, about 15,507 investors placed money in the DB Stock Consultancy schemes, drawn from across the country but concentrated in Assam, a state where formal-market penetration is thin and many depositors are first-time investors. The promise of returns measured in weekly percentages is what the record says pulled them in, and the collapse in August 2024 left them, per the ED, without either their promised returns or their principal.

The distinction that matters for those investors is between attachment and repayment. The roughly Rs 13.41 crore attached is the value of property the ED has frozen; it is not money returned to depositors, and against a collection the agency puts at about Rs 400.14 crore, the traced and attached assets are a fraction of the sum said to have been taken in. That gap, between money collected and assets recoverable, is characteristic of schemes that pay early investors out of later deposits rather than from real earnings.

The DB Stock matter is one of 41 investment-fraud cases the Government of Assam referred to the CBI, so the total number of affected savers across the cluster runs well beyond this single firm. Each case, however, stands on its own record, and the figures verified here, the Rs 13.41 crore attachment and the Rs 400.14 crore collection, relate specifically to DB Stock Consultancy.

Where It Stands Now

The case is at attachment and investigation stage. The provisional attachment order of 24 March 2026 must be placed before the Adjudicating Authority under the PMLA for confirmation within the statutory period; until confirmed it is a prima facie measure, not a final determination, and the ED has said further investigation is under progress.

On the criminal side, the FIR registered by the Assam Police was re-registered by the CBI, which is investigating the matter, and the proprietor Deepankar Barman has been arrested. No court has recorded any conviction in the DB Stock Consultancy matter. An FIR, a re-registered CBI case, a provisional attachment and an arrest are stages in the process, not findings of guilt; every individual and entity named by the ED and the CBI, including Deepankar Barman, is an accused, presumed innocent unless and until a court convicts them, and due process continues.

Readers can follow comparable deposit-scheme matters on Oquilia's enforcement news index, alongside the Dnyanradha co-operative deposit case and the court-supervised Agri Gold restitution to depositors, both of which show how such cases move from attachment towards possible recovery.

What It Means

The DB Stock matter is a textbook illustration of what the BUDS Act was written to stop: a firm with no licence to take public deposits gathering money on assured, arithmetically impossible returns. The two legal anchors named in the record, Section 45S of the RBI Act and Section 3 of the BUDS Act, both turn on a simple question, namely whether the entity was ever authorised to accept your deposit at all. Where a promoter is not an NBFC and not RBI-authorised, the promise of a return is being made by someone with no legal basis to hold public money.

For any saver, the practical safeguard is to check that authorisation before depositing, not after. A return quoted per week, or an annual figure in the double or triple digits, is not an opportunity but a warning that the money must come from somewhere other than genuine earnings, typically from the next investor. Running a promised payout through a realistic-return check, using a tool such as Oquilia's lump-sum return calculator, makes the implausibility of a 120 per cent annual promise plain.

The wider takeaway is that recovery, when it comes, is partial and slow. Even a diligent attachment recovers only the assets that can still be traced, and turning frozen property into money back in a depositor's hand runs through confirmation, trial and disposal over a period of years.

FAQ

Does the ED's chargesheet mean the people named are guilty?

No. An FIR, a re-registered CBI case, a provisional attachment and an arrest are steps in the process, not findings of guilt. The CBI is investigating and no court has convicted anyone in the DB Stock Consultancy matter. Every person named by the ED and the CBI, including Deepankar Barman, is an accused, presumed innocent unless and until a court convicts them.

What exactly did the ED attach on 24 March 2026?

Per the ED, it provisionally attached assets worth about Rs 13.41 crore under Section 5(1) of the PMLA, comprising immovable properties worth about Rs 8.71 crore in Guwahati, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam and movable assets worth about Rs 4.70 crore across 27 bank accounts and mutual fund and equity holdings. The attachment must still be confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority.

How much does the ED say was collected?

Per the ED, DB Stock Consultancy induced about 15,507 investors to deposit approximately Rs 400.14 crore under five schemes promising returns of 1.25 per cent weekly to 120 per cent annually. Those figures are the ED's investigative findings and have not been determined by a court.

Have investors got their money back?

No. The roughly Rs 13.41 crore represents attached property that has been frozen, not funds distributed to depositors. Any restoration would follow confirmation of the attachment and the outcome of the trial, through a court-supervised process that typically runs over years and rarely returns the full sum lost.

How can I check whether a firm can legally take my deposit?

A firm accepting public deposits must generally be registered as an NBFC or otherwise authorised by the RBI, and a deposit scheme is subject to the BUDS Act, 2019. You can verify a firm's registration on the RBI website (rbi.org.in) before depositing, and treat an assured return quoted per week, or in double or triple digits annually, as a reason to walk away.

This report is based on the press release of the Directorate of Enforcement dated 24 March 2026 on the provisional attachment against DB Stock Consultancy, reviewed on 1 August 2026.