A couple from Kerala have been accused of cheating hundreds of depositors of over Rs 50 crore through a chit fund and finance business they operated in Bengaluru and Mangaluru, where people from Kerala were the majority of depositors.
Over the last two days, dozens of investors have approached the Ramamurthy Nagar police station in east Bengaluru with complaints against A&A Chit Funds, operated by A V Tomy and Shini Tomy.
The investors approached the police after finding the chit fund firm’s Ramamurthy Nagar office locked and the couple inaccessible on their mobile phones.
In one of the cases, the police registered an FIR on July 5 on the basis of a complaint lodged by P T Savio, 64, a Ramamurthy Nagar resident and an investor in the chit fund firm. He alleges that he was defrauded out of Rs 70 lakh by the couple.
According to Savio’s complaint, the Tomy couple had run the chit fund and finance business in Bengaluru since 2005, attracting hundreds of small and large investors with the promise of high returns.
The funds deposited by the investors were allegedly being collected in the bank accounts of the firm and the private accounts of the couple.
“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,” reads Savio’s police complaint.
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The Ramamurthy Nagar police have registered a case under section 4 of the Chit Funds Act 1982, section 21 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance 2019, and under sections 318 and 316 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating and criminal breach of trust.