Fraudster held, Rs 65 lakh seized

Speaking to presspersons here on Tuesday, City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said the arrested has been identified as Praveen Shetty (24) of Perdoor in Udupi district. The police had already arrested Vasanth K D, Shekhar Bhat of Shishila in Belthangady, Ashok Kumar of B C Road and T Koragappa of Puttur and had seized property and cash worth Rs 35 lakh. On the whole, the police have confiscated property worth Rs 65 lakh in the case. 
It was said that the accused had started chain link or money laundering business in the name of ‘Index daily’ at Poonja International on K S Rao Road. Later, they shifted their business to Hindustan hotel. After carrying out business for four months, they shifted Index Daily to third floor of Mahendra Arcade. Few months later, they changed the name to Global index.

More than 2,000 to 2,500 customers had deposited their money in chain system with a hope of getting their investment doubled. Initially, the company paid the promised amount promptly to gain customers’ trust and to attract more customers. However, later they stopped paying the profit to the customers. It was said that they had collected around Rs 11 crore to Rs 12 crore. The company was closed in February 2011 without informing the customers. As it was a multi-crore cheating, a case was registered with Kadri police station. 
Acting on a tip off, the Mangalore East Police arrested Praveen Shetty at Sheshadripuram road in Bangalore. It was said that he was absconding and had travelled to Chandigarh, Darjeeling, Vishakhpattanam before landing at Bangalore. The police have also confiscated Rs 1,95,498 which was deposited in the Axis Bank at Bunts Hostel. 
Other chain links
The Commissioner said that there were several financial companies which was engaged in cheating the people in the name of doubling the invested money within short span of time. Companies like SPM Infotech Pvt Ltd, La-Greenma Comapny, Guru teak investment Private Limited, Guru agri farms private Ltd have cheated the customers without repaying the invested money. 

In the last two years, as many as 11 such cheating cases were registered in East police station, one in North police station, one in South police station, six in Urwa station, one in rural police station, six in Surathkal station, four in Ullal station. The police have already arrested 11 persons in cheating cases and have seized property worth Rs 29,83,498 from the accused. In spite of police taking measures against such cheating cases, several such fraud companies are mushrooming in the city. Anyone found indulging in money laundering, public can file written complaint with the nearest police station, he added. 

Singh said those who offer interest rate more than that of RBI interest rate for the deposits are illegal and it is a criminal offence. People should not fall prey to such traps.