• Hubballi bizman cheated in Rs. 25 crore loan lure
• Six from Mysuru booked; accused absconding

Mysore/Mysuru: A racket involving six persons, including a woman from Mysuru city, has allegedly cheated a 37-year-old businessman from Hubballi-Dharwad of Rs. 25 lakh under the pretext of facilitating a whopping Rs. 25 crore hand loan.

Acting on a complaint lodged by Harsha Hubballi on Mar. 9, Mysuru South Police (Mysuru Rural Police) filed a First Information Report (FIR) the same day against six residents of Lake View Layout, Gejjagalli, Koppalur and J.P. Nagar in Mysuru.

The accused are Narayana Shetty, Karthika, Yashawantha Shetty, C. Praveena, Deepak Vishwakarma and his wife Shruthi. The accused have gone absconding since then.

They have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections 316(2) for criminal breach of trust and 318(4) for dishonestly inducing someone to deliver property and to create or destroy valuable security.

The plot

In what is suspected to be a meticulously hatched plan, much like a thriller film, Yashawantha Shetty and Praveena, believed to be accomplices or middlemen working for the prime accused Narayana Shetty, approached Harsha at a hotel near the Toll Gate in Dharwad on Oct. 12, 2025.

Harsha was in need of Rs. 25 crore hand loan and was looking for potential lenders.

During the meeting, Yashawantha Shetty and Praveena spoke about Narayana Shetty, who they claimed was involved in the money-lending business and assured him that the loan would carry a low rate of interest. They later asked Harsha to come to Mysuru to complete the procedures to avail loan.

In Mysuru

Believing the words of Yashawantha Shetty and Praveena, Harsha came to Mysuru on Oct. 24, 2025 and checked into a hotel.

Karthika, an assistant of Narayana Shetty, who spoke to Harsha over the phone, informed him that a car would be sent to pick him up.

Accordingly, a white Fortuner car (KA-09 Z-8262) was sent to fetch Harsha from the hotel.

He was taken to House No. 42 & 43 at Lake View Layout, Gejjagalli, Koppalur, J.P. Nagar. Yashawantha Shetty and Praveena accompanied him in the car.

Meeting on loan rules

During the meeting, Narayana Shetty and Karthika explained to Harsha the rules and regulations to avail the loan. After collecting details about Harsha’s occupation, Narayana Shetty agreed to lend Rs. 25 crore. To facilitate the loan, Narayana Shetty sought stamp papers worth Rs. 98,000 and Rs. 2,000 towards Deed preparation charges, totalling Rs. 1 lakh for each Rs. 1 crore. For the total amount of Rs. 25 crore, the charges came to Rs. 25 lakh.

Subsequently, on Oct. 27, Harsha paid Rs. 5 lakh and on Nov. 3 the remaining Rs. 20 lakh, all in cash, to Narayana Shetty and Karthika in the presence of Yashawantha Shetty and Praveena.

Rs. 10 note, CMS van…

After collecting the money, Narayana Shetty and Deepak assured Harsha that they would send an armoured cash van (CMS van) carrying Rs. 25 crore in cash to his home address between Nov. 27 and 30.

As part of the process, the accused gave Harsha a piece of a Rs. 10 currency note and the registration number of the CMS van — KA-06 C-8389.

Harsha waited for the promised day, but there was no sign of the armoured cash van. When he contacted Karthika over the phone, he was asked to visit Mysuru again on Dec. 3.

He rushed to Mysuru and was taken to meet Narayana Shetty and Deepak Vishwakarma in the latter’s car. The duo cited reasons for the delay and assured him that the loan amount would reach him on Dec. 23.

However, Harsha’s wait again proved futile. Narayana Shetty and Deepak later gave different dates, Jan. 3 and Jan. 27, 2026, and Feb. 10, 18 and 23, which all turned out to be false assurances.

No information of accused

Suspecting that he had been cheated, the panic-stricken Harsha contacted the house owner, R.R. Swamy, over the phone. Swamy informed him that he had rented the house to Narayana Shetty and Karthika in the name of Deepak Vishwakarma.

To verify this, Harsha visited the house, where locals told him that the accused had already vacated the premises. Harsha mentioned in the complaint that the accused also vacated their office.

Rs. 75 lakh loss

In his complaint to the Police, Harsha stated that as part of the loan agreement, he had handed over three blank cheques of IDFC Bank as security.

He also claimed that he had incurred a loss of Rs. 75 lakh so far in the process of procuring the loan of Rs. 25 crore.