They have been cheating people by promising to double their investments in 30 days and then doing the vanishing act with the booty.

But their luck ran out on Tuesday. The Crime Branch arrested Mohan Kadam (42) from his Worli residence and Dyvesh Tulaskar (48) from his Vasai home for cheating about 2,000 people.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said they found Rs 48.5 lakh in cash and deposits worth Rs 6 crore in 10 banks from the Worli flat. The police have asked the banks to seal those accounts.

It is suspected that the deposits were made from the money they had collected from the investors.

The officials also seized a WagonR, an Opel Astra, three laptops and several cellphones.

The arrests came after Jairam Shirke, who runs a paper scrap mart at Byculla, approached the Unit III of the Crime Branch last week.

Shirke told the police that on October 9, he had visited the office of Jupiter International Trading Company at God’s Gift building in Lower Parel after he learnt that the firm would double his investments in a month’s time.

Shirke claimed he deposited Rs 1 lakh against which the firm gave him a slip.

However, four days later he found the office shut.

Crime Branch officials zeroed in on Kadam and Tulaskar, who reportedly confessed to their crime during interrogation.

On September 10, they created a website www. jitc. in and invited online transactions. “Most of the investors were from Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand and the interiors of Maharashtra,” Maria said. “They thought it would be easy to dupe people from far-off places.” Their scheme also became popular through word of mouth in the city.

Maria said they planned to shut shop in a month’s time. “In fact, they had planned another company which they were to float after a while,” Maria said.

In 2004, the duo had cheated over 567 investors from Satara, Nashik and Pune by floating a similar scheme called Dunhill Securities, said Maria.

A case had been filed against them in the Economic Offences Wing, which is still pending trial.

The duo was remanded to police custody till October 25.