Consultant held for siphoning off Rs 7.5 cr from firm

The Cyber Crime sleuths on Sunday arrested a management consultant on charges of siphoning off funds and stealing data belonging to an education group that runs a chain of schools in Dubai and Sharjah.

The accused, Abhilash Rao Magavanna (35), a resident of Bharath Nagar in BEL Layout, was arrested based on a complaint lodged with Indiranagar police by the management representatives of IQRA Group headquartered in Dubai.

The police have seized 12 laptops, eight debit cards and one mobile phone — all worth over Rs 7 lakh from the accused.

The complainant alleged that Abhilash Rao had befriended the company’s CEO while studying at IIT-Madras and joined his company as a management consultant. He soon became
an independent paid director (quality assurance) between 2014 and 2018 with Bengaluru as his operational base.

During this period, he allegedly fabricated documents, opened a different bank account and started diverting funds worth Rs 7.5 crore.

He also stole the company’s data. Rao has been remanded in judicial custody.