Gullibles’ travails: Greed not good

Hundreds of investors looking for doubling their returns on investments made by selling their properties or valuables, have allegedly been cheated of crores of rupees by a man from Hoskote with two different identities. However, despite being cheated of huge amounts the police have not registered a first information report (FIR) although complaints have been filed with various jurisdictional police besides with police commissioner BG Jyothiprakash Mirji and other senior police officials.

The man, named G Ananda Ramu, had allegedly promised the investors returns which would be twice the amounts invested, and that too in just 90 days. The seemingly irresistible deal hooked at least 300 investors who dreamed of big money in a short period of time.

Ramu met people across the city and Bangalore Rural, introducing himself as G Aravind who owned Investor & Aravind Group and Associated Group Companies (on first main, second cross, Devasandra Main Road in KR Puram) which had an agreement with Laran Holdings and Investments Pvt Ltd, owned by one Vara Prasad Raju P.
This agreement was allegedly being displayed to the gullible investors to woo them with the tempting offer of getting them returns double their investments in just three months.

N Vijay, resident of Srinagar and one among the hundreds cheated, told DNA that a friend had introduced him to ‘G Aravind’ a few months ago. Aravind told him to invest in his company and promised returns twice that of the investments made with him.
“I gave him `5 lakh for which he promised to pay me `10 lakh in 90 days. We made an agreement to that effect. After 90 days, he gave me two cheques of IDBI Bank, which bounced when I submitted it to the bank to credit the amounts. That is when I realised that he had cheated me and that his name is Ramu and not Aravind. He has been absconding since the last three months,” said Vijay.

Ramu had allegedly also visited Hoskote (where he is said to have resided for five years before shifting to Bangalore) and convinced at least 50 people to invest amounts ranging between `5 lakh and `10 lakh. They, too, have alleged that Ramu had cheated them without paying the promised returns, Vijay said. “All the cheques he gave to the investors have bounced because of insufficient funds,” Vijay said. “For the last four months we have been trying to lodge a complaint, but nowhere we could get an FIR registered.”

Apart from people in Hoskote, Ramu has also allegedly cheated people in KR Puram (about 40 people), Chamarajpet (around 30), Majestic and its surrounding (about 60), and Tumkur (about 100).
Interestingly, when several of the cheated investors rushed to Ramu’s residence in Banasawadi, his landlord, too, complained of being cheated by Ramu, alleging that he had not paid him his rent for several months. Ramu was reportedly living in that residence since the past one year. Moreover, the cheated people also discovered later that no office of Investor & Aravind Group and Associated Group Companies existed on the said address at first main, second cross, Devasandra Main Road in KR Puram.

Surprisingly, in spite of the cheques bouncing the bank officials concerned failed to inform the police or even the people who put the cheques in the banks for crediting the amounts.

Another person allegedly cheated by Ramu, identified as Sunil Kumar alias Seena, a real estate businessman, said Ramu had taken `2,000 from each cab driver in KR Puram and promised them to get driver’s jobs abroad or with cab services at Bangalore International Airport . He even collected their original driving licences, but did not get them the promised jobs — and neither did he return their original documents.

The cheated investors also discovered that Ramu knew the cabbies in KR Puram as he himself had been a driver with a three-star hotel before he allegedly started cheating people to make quick money in huge amounts. Even while working for the three-star hotel, he had tried selling the hotel car on his own to pocket the money, but was caught red-handed. But no complaint was registered even then.