C Kumara, 35, son of Chinnappa, a resident of Nagashettihalli in Bangalore, is the accused. A resident of Mahadeshwara Layout in the city, he was a mid-level construction worker involved in curing at Infosys here for the past five years.

Sources told Deccan Herald Kumara had collected hefty amounts, promising gullible people in Mysore shares of the software giant.

He would show off well to impress gullible people — right from sartorial elegance to the four-wheeler, albeit he had a Maruti van in his possession.

He had opened four offices — in Saraswathipuram, Hootagalli, T K Layout and Hebbal. Apart from promising shares in the software company, he had assured a daily dividend of Rs 5,000 for a deposit of Rs 1 lakh as membership fee.

No sooner one enrolled as a member, he would pay the dividend, giving time for payment of the membership fee.

Surprisingly, most of the investors are women from well-to-do families. One is the wife of a forest officer, another a relative of a police officer posted in Bangalore.

He had hired men in his offices to collect the amount. Similarly, he had collected Rs 50 lakh by opening an office at his native Nagashettihalli six years ago. He suddenly disappeared from there and took refuge in Mysore since then.

Satish from Vijayanagar, one of the victims lodged a complaint with the police three months ago, helping unmask the culprit.

He was arrested recently and his properties in Bangalore have been confiscated, to repay his victims.

Soon after Satish, 50 more victims lodged complaints and the numbers burgeoned till recently, taking the total amount of money he has collected to Rs 3 crore.

According to police, it is just a beginning, as there are chances of similar cases coming to the fore once his arrest is made public.

The properties seized by the police include a two-storeyed house in Prasannahalli, a 30x40 site near Devanahalli, 400 grams of gold, two two-wheelers, all in Bangalore and worth over Rs 1 crore.

Lorries recovered
In two separate cases, N R police on Sunday arrested two persons and have recovered one tipper and two lorries worth Rs 15 lakh from them.

The accused have been identified as Mohammed Azeem, 23, son of Mohammed Sardar, Mahadevapura main road, Shantinagar and Chandrashekar alias Chandra, 27, son of late Puttaswamy, Kesare.

Police on night patrolling — under ‘Operation Midnight’ — nabbed Mohammed Azeem, a lorry foreman, along with a 10-wheeled tipper lorry near Old Toll Gate close to Siddiqui Madrasa. The tipper belongs to Farooq Baig of Yelwal and had been stolen on November 11. The owner had lodged a complaint with the police.

Chandrashekar was apprehended near Devanur lake during ‘Operation Shubodaya’ — early morning drive. He along with his friend had lifted lorries belonging to C A Mahesh and Javeed Pasha from N R Mohalla and Satyanagar respectively. While the heavy vehicle of Mahesh had been stolen on July 17, Javeed Pasha’s was stolen on October 29.

One more held
N R police have succeeded in arresting another member of the recently-arrested four-member inter-state dacoits’ gang from Kerala. Fazlluddin alias Fazhul, son of late Mohammed, Trissur district in Kerala, is the accused.

He was arrested near a hotel in Bannimantap here on Saturday night. Fazlluddin has three cases of assault, extortion and unlawful assembly in his home state.

He had gone at large at the stage of trial in the court. Fazlluddin had made good his escape, when the police nabbed four of his accomplices recently. The gang was planning to attack a businessman’s house in Nanjangud. They had selected an abandoned house in N R limits for an hideout to begin with.

The police team that cracked the cases was led by inspector K N Yeshwanth Kumar, consisting of sub-inspector Prashant S among others.