Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 12: It has come to light that an investment firm that had been able to lure many people including some famous personalities to invest money with them by holding out promise of high returns, has cheated its customers by not returning to them even their principal amount. Reportedly, cricketing legend, Rahul Dravid is among those who lost their money through Vikram Investment Company which functions from the city.

After Balaji Scented Sticks company represented by one of the owners, P R Balaji, registered a complaint against the said firm after having been cheated to the extent of Rs 11.74 crore, police personnel of Banashankari station began to probe the company's affairs and came to know that this is a huge racket. As at present, it has come to light that over 400 people have been cheated to the extent of Rs 300 crore, but in course of time, the number of complaints are expected to mount and the actual amount of fraud might be more than double this figure, it is said.

Raghavendra Srinath

City south deputy commissioner of police, Dr S D Sharanappa, said that they have found that the accused had cheated consumers to the extent of hundreds of croes of rupees. He said that probe is continuing and actual figure will be known only on the conclusion of the investigation.

Owner of the company, Raghavendra Srinath, agents, Narasimhamurthy, Prahlad, Nagaraj K S and Sutram Ramesh stand arrested. The police produced them in the court and obtained their police custody till March 17.

As per information collected, the company personnel had succeeded in pestering Dravid to take a policy by way of investment, and through installments, he has paid over a crore of rupees so far without any returns thereto. On the other hand, an officer said that former badminton champion, Prakash Padukone, who had remitted premium amounts, succeeded in withdrawing the amounts paid by him after getting scent of the impending fraud.

The police have learnt that since the last 30 months, the accused who got premiums and installments from the customers, had failed to invest the amount in the share market as promised. Instead, they used the money for their personal ends and hence now find it impossible to pay back to the customers. Money was routed through one account of the company and five personal accounts of the above persons. A senior police officer said that the company has since been closed, bank accounts of the five persons have been frozen, two cars and some bonds have been taken into possession, and investigation is progressing.

Two owners of Balaji Scented Sticks were enticed by the company in 2016 to invest with the company. The two brothers who run this company, had invested a total of Rs 11.74 crore but their efforts to get returns on investment as well as the principal back failed. Therefore, they had filed police complaint.

The personnel of the company succeeded in attracting investment by initially giving good returns on investments, it is said.