Man kills self after duping people of crores

A man who cheated many people of crores of rupees committed suicide in his house in the city on Saturday.

Ripon Malhotra, 56, duped people across the state to the tune of Rs300 crore.

He was under the police scanner. The Central Crime Branch (CCB) had interrogated him on Wednesday. City police commissioner BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji had given him a strict warning on Friday.

Sources in the police said Malhotra had collected hundreds of crores of rupees from people, promising them a huge return on investment. He lost equally huge amounts in the share market and could not return the money he owed people.

Malhotra had come to Bangalore two years ago and started a firm, headquartered at Marathahalli. He was staying in a rented house with his friend Brigadier Ashok Nagapal, who learnt about the suicide when he returned to the house on Saturday afternoon.

Police said Malhotra’s company had a branch in Davangere town too and had raised more than Rs32 crore from the people there, including some politicians.

Initially, the investors did get some money in return. They soon started receiving merely excuses. They soon realised that they had lost their money.

Seven people from Davangere met Mirji on Friday and told him about their loss. Upon digging into Malhotra’s antecedents, the police found that cheating cases were registered against him in the city too. Mirji asked his sub-ordinates to present Malhotra or his employee. The police brought Nagapal to the commissioner’s office, where Mirji threatened Malhotra with strict action for cheating people if the investors’ money was not returned.

The CCB interrogated Malhotra on Wednesday. He told the police that he lost all the money in share market. The CCB let him go after he promised that he would return the investors’ money.