A couple from Kerala who are accused of cheating nearly 600 investors of over Rs 40 crore through a chit fund and finance business they operated in east Bengaluru were granted anticipatory bail on Thursday by the principal sessions court in the Karnataka capital.
Tomy A Varghese, 57, and his wife Shini Tomy, 52, are alleged to have fled to Kenya after cheating investors through the A&A Chit Funds and Finance firm they had been operating in east Bengaluru since 2005.
The couple moved the Karnataka High Court seeking the quashing of the case on July 15 and approached the sessions court for bail on July 18. The court of the principal sessions judge in Bengaluru granted bail to the couple after hearing their counsel and the state prosecutor. A detailed order is expected to be released soon.
The couple’s plea in the high court, which also sought a stay on the investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police in the case, is due for hearing next week.
The couple are alleged to have fled to Kenya on July 3, two days before the cheating case was registered against them at the Ramamurthy Nagar police station in east Bengaluru. Investigations have shown they sold all their property – an apartment and a car – for half the price before fleeing the country, the police said after the case was registered.
A complaint of cheating was filed against the couple by a senior citizen who lost Rs 70 lakh in the alleged chit scam and several others also filed similar petitions. Dozens of investors have approached the Ramamurthy Nagar police with complaints of being defrauded by A&A Chit Funds and Finance.
The police registered the FIR on July 5 on the basis of the complaint filed by P T Savio, 64, a Ramamurthy Nagar resident who has alleged that he has been cheated out of Rs 70 lakh by the couple.
Hundreds lured with promise of 6-14% interest rates
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Initial police investigations found that 368 investors in A&A Chit Funds and Finance had been cheated out of Rs 39.66 crore. “The accused have been running A&A Chit Fund and Finance company for about 20 years, by promising interest rates ranging from 6 to 14 per cent,” the police said.
According to Savio’s police complaint, the Tomy couple had gathered hundreds of small and large investors in the firm with the promise of high returns. The funds deposited by the investors were being collected in the bank accounts of the firm and the private accounts of the couple, says the police complaint.
“They have collected Rs 70 lakh from me and my family and several crores from others. When we visited the office of the company, we found it closed and the couple were missing. Their phones were also switched off,” read the complaint.
The case was registered under section 4 of the Chit Funds Act 1982, section 21 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance 2019; and sections 318 and 316 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating and criminal breach of trust.
The Government later transferred the case to the CID.
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The police have issued lookout circulars for the couple after learning that they had left the country.