A couple from Kerala accused of cheating 368 investors of nearly Rs 40 crore through a chit fund and finance business in East Bengaluru are suspected to have fled to Kenya on July 3, two days before they were booked on a police complaint filed by a senior citizen who had lost Rs 70 lakh in the alleged chit fund scam.
Tomy A Varghese, 57, and his wife Shini Tomy, 52, fled from India after selling their apartment at Krishnarajapuram in East Bengaluru and their cars in a pre-planned effort to dupe the hundreds of investors in the A&A Chit Funds and Finance firm they had been operating in East Bengaluru since 2005, police sources said.
“It is pre-planned cheating. They have sold everything they owned in Bengaluru and fled. They are suspected to be in a country in Africa,” a police source said.
Dozens of investors have approached the Ramamurthy Nagar police station in East Bengaluru with complaints of being defrauded by the A&A Chit Funds company operated by the Tomys.
The police registered an FIR on July 5 on the basis of a complaint by P T Savio, 64, a Ramamurthy Nagar resident and an investor in the chit fund firm who has alleged that he has been defrauded of Rs 70 lakh by the couple.
Police investigations have found that 368 investors in A&A Chit Funds have been cheated of Rs 39.66 crore. According to the police, there are over 750 investors in the firm and the total loss could touch Rs 100 crore if more victims come forward to file complaints.
“During the preliminary investigation, it has been found that about 750-800 people have made chit fund and finance investments in this company. Every day people gather near the police station to file complaints against A&A Chit Fund and Finance company. The number of people who have been cheated by the company is likely to increase further and the amount cheated may cross hundreds of crores of rupees,” a police source said.
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“They have sold the house they were living in and fled without anyone knowing, defrauding them of hundreds of crores of rupees,” the police source said.
A search of the house that the couple sold recently is being conducted, the police added.
“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 source said. The couple are alleged to have cleaned out the bank accounts in which they received funds from investors.
“The Bangalore City Police has taken the said case seriously and all possible steps are being taken to find the accused,” D Devaraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said.
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The couple hail from the Mampuzhakary region of Alappuzha district in Kerala.
According to the police complaint filed by Savio, the Tomys 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, according to Savio’s 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,” states Savio’s complaint.
The police case was registered under section 4 of the Chit Funds Act 1982, under 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.
