Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Jan 12: It is said that a group which collected deposits from the general public by offering monthly rate of interest of four percent has allegedly fleeced people to the tune of about Rs 50 crore. A large number of complaints have been filed against the group members in different police stations, and five persons have been arrested till now.
The arrested persons are Manjunath Nayak from Derebail here, Vikas Nayak alias Tilak Raj residing at Mutyaanagara near Mattikere Benglauru, Denzil Mascarenhas from Konchady here, Ashok Naik from Derebail and Vishwanath Naik from Mattikere Bengaluru. All of them were arrested on December 30.
'Speak and Group', the concern in question, had been started by Dhanush M K From Kundapur taluk along with his relatives and friends. Two complaints about the alleged cheating by the group stand registered in the rural police staiton here. About 60 persons have complained so far, and a case each has also been registered in Kavoor and Kankanady police stations.
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As the preliminary estimates of the police department based on complaints received so far, the size of fraud is worth over Rs 50 core. Both Dhanush and his friend, Jean Nisha Misquith, have gone missing. There is suspicion that they would have been hiding abroad. Uday Kumar Naik, the other main accused, too has become untraceable.
Police officials stated that most of the accused are family members of Dhanush as he had appointed his close ones to important positions in the concern. They added that as per information, Dhanush had opened branches of his concern at Bondel and Valencia in Mangaluru, Bengaluru, and some other places where money was accepted by promising high returns.
The people sitting in these offices not only offered four percent per month interest, but also special bonus. They used to show insurance products of Metlife Insurance to convince the prospectve depositors of starting such insurance schemes and earn high profit. It is said that many people working in the Gulf region fell into the group's trap and invested money.
The police said that news about the demise of the group owner breathing his last at Dubai on December 26 is being circulated in social websites and that the authenticity of this information is yet to be verified. City police commissioner, Dr P S Harsha, said that investigation into this case will be entrusted to criminal investigation department (CID) within a week. He said that he has requested the higher officials at Bengaluru to hand over the case to CID as it has the expertise to handle economic offences.