JOIN USAnother Ponzi scheme goes bust; chit fund director arrested in Bengaluru
Another Ponzi scheme has gone bust in the city.
Banashankari police say they have arrested the director of a chit fund-cum-financial services firm for cheating 170 people of Rs 40 crore after taking their investments in exchange for highly improbable returns.
Anantha Ram, 58, the director of Panchamukhi Groups, was arrested following complaints from a host of investors. A local court has remanded him in police custody for further questioning.
Ram’s partner Shankar and manager Varun Raj are currently absconding, according to police.
Police have booked Ram, Shankar and Raj for cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy under IPC sections and under the relevant provisions of the Karnataka Protection of Interest Depositors Exorbitant Act and the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act.
Panchamukhi Groups had been running chit fund, car finance and vehicle insurance businesses since at least 2017.
The firm paid a few instalments of the monthly interest but eventually stopped the payments. It also failed to return the principal. The investors’ worst fears came true on February 3 when they found the firm’s offices — located at 7th Main in Banashankari 2nd Stage — closed.
Darshan Venkatesh, a 24-year-old civil engineer from Padmanabhanagar, was the first to file a police complaint, on February 8. He said he, his grandmother Gowramma, uncle Pratap Kumar, friend Manohar, Manohar’s mother Hemalatha and elder sister Pavitra had invested a total of about Rs 57 lakh in the firm.
According to Venkatesh, they were all lured by the 24% annual returns promised by Panchamukhi Groups.
Following Venkatesh’s complaint, police have received similar complaints from around 170 people since Tuesday.
Initial police investigations show that the firm may have cheated over 500 people. An investigation is underway to uncover the modus operandi of the fraud.
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