BENGALURU: Five men were arrested by Suddaguntepalya police on Thursday for allegedly cheating two businessmen of Rs 5.8cr on the pretext of getting them loans from a financial firm on Nov 16.
Probe revealed that the gang had purchased 11.5kg of gold from two jewellery firms and a used BMW car from the funds they had collected from the businessmen. One of the accused had spent Rs 10 lakh from the money he had fraudulently gained to refurbish the BMW car. tnn
TOI had reported the fraud perpetrated by the gang on November 22.
The accused are Syed Ibrahim alias Daniel Armstrong alias Amaran from Kerala; Vivekananda alias Vicky alias Viveka alias Vivekananda Kumar; Christopher alias Raghavan; Raghuvaran and Shivaraman alias Nagaraj, all four from Tamil Nadu.
Police have seized 8.2kg of gold, the BMW worth Rs 35 lakh, a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga worth Rs 10 lakh, Rs 36.6 lakh in cash and frozen the company's bank account which had Rs 1.8 lakh balance. The Ertiga was seized as it was used to commit the crime.
Police estimated that the suspects had spent Rs 45 lakh from the money they earned by cheating two businessmen. They said they are yet to recover some more gold purchased by the accused. Police said that there is one more suspect at large and efforts are on to trace and nab him.
"The victims and the accused persons discussed their business deal on phone, messages and mails. They met in person in Bengaluru just a day prior to the suspects going missing on November 16 soon after the two victims transferred Rs 5.8 crore to bank accounts of the suspects," Srinath M Joshi, deputy superintendent of police (southeast) said.
According to police, Girish P, 48, of Ashokanagar, and Taram, a resident of Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh, have filed complaints against the gang.
According to the two FIRs, Girish lost Rs 2.2 crore and Taram lost Rs 3.6 crore. Police named Daniel Armstrong, Vivekananda Kumar and Ravi Raghavan as the accused based on the information provided by the victim duo.
Girish has a real-estate firm in Bengaluru and he was about to take up a new project. He was looking for a loan at a lower interest. One of the miscreants called Girish and asked him to contact Armstrong, who runs a finance firm in Krishna Nagar, near BTM Layout. Vivekananda and Raghavan met him and he received an email on November 8, in which they agreed to sanction Rs 150 crore as loan. They were supposed to disburse the loan by November 16, but they didn't do so.
Similarly, Taram alleged the trio had cheated him of Rs 3.6 crore. Taram wanted a loan for his project and the gang approached him over phone. The gang arranged a flight ticket for him from Arunachal Pradesh to Bengaluru on October 25. He met them in their office and they agreed to sanction him Rs 240 crore. They sent him an email on November 8. Taram met Armstrong at his office on November 14. The next day, he transferred Rs 3.6 crore as a commitment amount, expecting the money by evening. When he did not get it, he visited Armstrong's office and realised that he had been cheated.
Police investigation reveals that Ibrahim opened a fake frim – ‘Ace Ventures Capital, MOU Group of Companies' -- in the first week of November. He took office furniture on rent as he set up an office on a temporary basis to lure his victims. He opened a bank account in his fake company's name.
The gang diverted Rs 2.2 crore transferred by Girish to a jewellery shop and purchased 4kg of gold from its Bengaluru branch shop. They diverted Rs 3.6 crore transferred by Taram to another jewellery shop and purchased 7.2kg of gold. They paid Rs 33 lakh as GST/CST against their payment for gold purchase.
The gang took all the gold to a hotel in Salem, where they divided their shares there.
Two victims:
According to police sources, Girish had mentioned in his complaint that one more businessman by name Panitara too had lost Rs 3.6 crore to the same gang. Police initially thought that the gang cheated three businessmen of over Rs 9.5 crore. Later, police learnt that the person Girish had named as Panitara was actually Taram. Police clarified that the gang cheated only two victims.
A Hyderabad businessman who allegedly introduced the victims to the accused was found dead in mysterious circumstances on railway tracks in Yelahanka on November 24. Police had questioned him the previous day.
