The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Tuesday arrested a 45-year-old conman who allegedly duped a businessman of ₹7.2 crore by promising to get him a ₹360 crore business loan at a lower interest rate in November last year.
The accused, Hari Gopalakrishna Nadar, hails from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. “His associates targeted businessmen and promised them low-interest loans. Once the businessmen agreed, Nadar, pretending to be the owner of a finance company, would meet with him in a star hotel. After a round of formal talks, he would promise the businessman that the loan would be sanctioned. However, his associates would then ask the victim to transfer huge amounts of money towards service charges and commission,” said a senior police officer.
Using a similar modus operandi, the accused approached the businessman from Bengaluru. After several rounds of talks, Nadar presented him with a fake demand draft for ₹360 crore and forced him to pay ₹7.2 crore as service fee. The amount was paid in instalments through wire transfer, cash and gold. By the time the businessman realised he had been duped, Nadar had disappeared.
Based on his complaint, the Cubbon Park police on November 1, 2020, registered a case against Nadar and six of his associates. The case was later transferred to the CCB, who tracked down and arrested one of Nadar’s associates, Ranjith Panikar, on April 7. They recovered gold valuables worth ₹10 lakh, cash amounting to ₹96,000, and seized bank accounts with deposits up to ₹38.8 lakh.
The police on May 4 tracked down Nadar, who was hiding in Kerala, and recovered 3,893 gm of gold valuables worth ₹2 crore and ₹8.7 lakh cash.
Investigations so far revealed that the accused allegedly cheated many businessmen in Karnataka, AP, Telangana. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. “We are verifying his bank account transactions and probing his network and beneficiaries,” said a police officer.
