Four held for duping people of Rs 25 crore promising high interest on deposits

Four persons who promised moon to investors by offering higher interest and absconded after raking in a fortune of Rs 25 crore, are now cooling their heels behind bars.

Briefing the media, City police commissioner Shankar Bidari said the prime accused H R Prabhakar and his accomplices had established Infoscience Consultancy Service India Limited, a profit-sharing company promising higher rate of interest for depositors.

No statutory permission

They set the shop without obtaining statutory permission from the authorities concerned. After amassing a fortune to the tune of Rs 25 crore, they absconded in March, this year. Cases of cheating had been registered against Prabhakar in Chennamanna Kere Acchukatu, Magadi Road and Girinagar police stations. The other accused - general manager B N Radhamani, director H R Venkatesh Prasad and H R Anand, a shareholder in the company, have also been arrested and are being questioned. “They have not invested the deposit money in any other business, but had used part of money to rent posh air-conditioned offices and homes in Bangalore and Mumbai,” Bidari said.

They were also paying big salaries to office employees. The prime accused, who was in the United States, was made to come to the City in a trap laid by the CCB and nabbed upon arrival.

H R Prabhakar had first established a company, High Gain Enterprises in 2004 at Avalahalli and cheated people of Rs four lakh. Later, Infoscience Consultancy Service India Limited was established at Banashankari in the year 2006. They had also duped public of Rs 60 lakh in Mumbai too, Bidari said.

Fake idols

One more group of four people, who fooled people by claiming to unearth the treasure, were arrested by the CCB on Friday. They had cheated housewives to the tune of Rs 30 lakh in the City.

Nagaraj (52), Vishwanath Reddy (20), S Rajamanickyam (49) and Muniraju (38) are the four arrested.

Disclosing the arrests, City Police Commissioner Bidari said that the prime accused, Nagaraj, an astrologer, used to befriend women and housewives residing on the outskirts of City, by promising to predict their future. Then he used to extort lakhs of rupees on false promises of locating hidden treasure in their houses and fields.

After winning over the gullible, he used to bring pooja items and idols of gods and godessess in a huge sack. Later, in the pretext of performing pooja he used to send his victims out of the place, dig the earth and hide the sack containing idols. Then he used to call the women, dig the pit and claim that antique idols had been found.

“Apart from collecting lakhs of rupees, he used to fool people by claiming that the idols were worth crores of rupees and promising to sell them.  Police have recovered 16 idols, two bracelets and a four-wheeler from the arrested.