Suresh Krishnamurthy, a native of Hassan and a realtor, started Investec Company in 2005 and enrolled more than 3,000 investors.
He collected about Rs 100 crore from them as deposits, promising them higher rates of interest. He was operating from the Diamond District Apartments on Airport Road as well as from Domlur.
The bubble burst soon. Investors started complaining about the delay in getting their money back. Some of them even approached the police. Subsequently, three cases in Ulsoor Halasoor police station and one in Thyagarajanagar were registered against him. He was later arrested and remanded to judicial custody. However, Suresh managed to get bail.
Within days after he got out on bail, he absconded and went to Pune, Mumbai, Varanasi and New Delhi. The police constituted a special team to nab him. They had a tough time as he kept changing his hideouts.
Some realtors, middlemen and brokers, who had invested money in his company, grabbed his property, flats and cash and transferred then to their names immediately after he absconded.
Suresh was nabbed after the special team arrested one Chaman Bhai, an associate of Suresh and a native of Varanasi on August 17 and recovered three cars worth Rs 17 lakh.
Chaman had purchased the vehicles using the investors’ money. When questioned, he told the police that Suresh was staying in Mandya. Based on this information, the police traced Suresh and arrested him, when he was about to flee to Varanasi via Chennai.
Suresh’s wife lives in Bangalore while his son is in the UK.