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Gurgaon: Hero Group CFO Sanjay Gupta has been arrested by Gurgaon police in the multi-crore Citibank fraud case. Sources told CNN-IBN that Gupta recommended Citibak employee Shivraj Puri to other people in the Hero Group in return for a commission of about Rs 20 crore from him.He has been sent to police custody for five days. Gupta was also aware of the fact that Puri used to present fake Securities and Exchange Board of India circulars while making the transaction.They are not ruling out the involvement of other top officials of the company in the fraud and claim that Puri used to keep in touch with Gupta on regular basis.

Police suspect that employees of other banks and companies may also be involved in the nearly Rs 300 crore fraud case masterminded by Puri.

Gupta had been questioned by the police on December 31 to examine his role. The questioning lasted for nearly eight hours.

Gurgaon police has confirmed that several employees of Hero Group had invested in schemes fraudulently promoted by Puri. The amount invested is reported to be around Rs 50 crore.

Police officials say that the bulk of the money collected by Citibank staffer Shivraj Puri went to two brokerage firms - Religare and Bonanza.

Puri, a relationship manager at the Gurgaon branch of Citibank, had allegedly sold investment products to high networth clients claiming that they would generate unusually high returns.

After collecting funds from his clients, Puri used to deposit them in his Citibank accounts and then further channelise them in accounts in the name of Religare and Bonanza.

According to the police, most of corporates, which invested the amount with Puri, belonged to the Hero Group.

As per Gurgaon Police Commissioner SS Deswal, of Rs 300 crore involved in the fraud, Rs 200 crore belonged to corporates and Rs 100 crore to individuals.

Puri has already been arrested.

Hero Group had on December 30 said that it was a victim of the estimated Rs 300 crore Citibank fraud in which some investors were allegedly swindled.

"Some of the Hero Group entities, along with some others, are victims of the fraud conducted through one of the Citi branches in Gurgaon," Hero Group said in a statement.

The group said an enquiry is in progress and next steps will be decided post the enquiry.