Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, May 2: In an incident which occurred at Kemmayi in the taluk, people intercepted a car in which Sringeri police were escorting a person accused of involvement with multi-crore scandal, and took him away from their custody. The mob felt that the people in the car, who were posing as policemen, were not real.

A complaint stands registered in Sringeri police station against Rajesh Prabhu, who was running a firm with the name, 'Ruchi Agency' on APMC Road here, through which he announced benefit schemes and conducted trade in pepper and areca nut, before closing down business and fleeing. The complaint at Sringeri station also had named Balakrishna Gowda, in whose name the licence relating to Ruchi Agency reportedly stands.

Sringeri poilce came to Puttur, and were taking Balakrishna Gowda from his shop on APMC Road, when people who suspected them to be fake police personnel, stopped the car near Kemmayi, and forcibly took Balakrishna Gowda away, alleging that he was being taken away unnecessarily by people faking themselves as police. Thereafter, the Sringeri police came to the town station here and informed their counterparts.

In the Sringeri case, the complainant has reported loss of about Rs 40 lac. With this, it is being claimed, the total money embezzled works out to over ten crore, including cases in which the people have stayed away from filing complaint for fear of investigation into their financial dealings.

Balakrishna Gowda went missing since he was released from the custody of Sringeri police, and till Friday night, he was not brought to Puttur town police station. In the meanwhile, the complaint filed in Sringeri has named a person, Shubha, whose name has so far been unheard here, as an accused. It is said that Shubha had succeeded in collecting some important documents from Sringeri, by claiming that Rajesh Prabhu was in coma. No one however, knows about Shubha's identity or whereabouts.