Hook, line and 'minister' at VS: Businessman cheated

City police arrested a gang for cheating a Tamil Nadu-based businessman of Rs 1.12 crore offering a 100-crore loan by posing as a minister and his entourage at the Vidhana Soudha.

The gang of eight, including a father-son duo, was arrested in a joint operation by the Vidhana Soudha and Cubbon Park police.

Police arrested Karthikeyan (60), his son Swaroop K, both residents of Seshadripuram, Manikantavasan (25), resident of Banashankari III Stage, Suman K V (27), Abhilash R (27), both residents of Thyagarajanagar, R Karthik (34) from Thanjavur, Prabhu (30) from Tirunelveli, and Jomon alias Jobin (49), a resident of Old Guruppanapalya.

To convince the victim that the 100-crore loan offer was indeed genuine, the prime accused posed as a Government of Karnataka minister, flanked by four bodyguards at the Vidhana Soudha’s corridors of power.

In fact, the accused had actually managed to get hold of visitors’ entry passes and had gained access to the first floor of the Vidhana Soudha.

According to the police, Ramesh, a cashew businessman from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, required a 100-crore loan to grow his business. Ramesh and his business partner Indira were approached by the gang members with the promise of the loan. They later met at a Bengaluru hotel and the gang said they would head to the Vidhana Soudha to meet a minister regarding the loan.

On January 2, the gang took Ramesh and Indira to the Vidhana Soudha where Karthikeyan introduced himself as minister K K Shetty to the businessman and his partner. Karthikeyan’s make-believe minister then explained that he had surplus money which he can lend as a loan.

Karthikeyan, with four men dressed in safari suits as bodyguards, used a spare chamber as office on the first floor of the Vidhana Soudha by bribing a peon, Mahadevaswamy.

The gang even used a car they acquired from the Legislative House. There was an even an assessee team that visited the businessmen in Tamil Nadu. The team even verified their IT returns.

After all this, the partners were indeed convinced that they would get the loan.

Later, the gang met the victim again at another hotel where the latter handed over Rs 1.12 crore as stamp duty for the loan to be disbursed.

It was after this meeting that the gang went incommunicado.

Indira then filed a complaint at the Vidhana Soudha police station.