Rs. 1.14 crore siphoned off from woman’s bank account 

Mysore/Mysuru: Finding a unique way of cheating a gullible woman after eyeing the Rs. 2.37 crore land compensation paid by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), conmen have cheated her of Rs. 1.14 crore. 

The compensation was credited to the woman’s bank account and the fraudsters managed to take money from her account through cheques. After siphoning off the money, the accused threatened to kill the woman for demanding back her money. 

A case has been booked against two persons in NR Police Station under IPC Section 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (common intention criminal act), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty). 

The complaint has been lodged by Bharathi, wife of late Gopalegowda and a resident of Mahadevapura Layout against Ramegowda and Purushotham, residents of the same Layout. She has stated in her complaint that the accused fraudulently withdrew Rs. 1.14 crore with the help of cheques signed by her. 

She had issued the signed cheques to the accused to claim compensation for land from KIADB. The Police have registered a case on Aug. 6, 2021 and are investigating. 

Case background 

In her complaint, Bharathi has stated that her husband Gopalegowda was working in Heritage Golf Private Limited Club Company at Yadavagiri. He had sold his 5-acre land at Kochanahalli in Varuna Hobli to open a Golf Club. Later, the KIADB acquired the land for industrial purposes. 

Gopalegowda passed away on Jan. 26, 2011 and KIADB had issued a notice to his family on the compensation to the acquired land and had sought documents of land ownership and other details. As the land was already sold to the Heritage Golf Club, the Club must rightfully get the compensation amount too. 

As Bharathi was not aware of the procedures involved in the compensation process, she approached Ramegowda and Purushotham who were known to the Golf Club Manager. The duo agreed to transfer the compensation amount to the Club and also assist Bharathi in the process.

After obtaining documents from Bharathi, they asked her to open an account at N.R. Mohalla branch of South Indian Bank and had taken her signatures on blank cheque leaves and told her that the cheques were required for the RTGS money transfer. 

Rs. 2,37,50,000 compensation

Trusting them, Bharathi signed on blank cheques and issued the same to Ramegowda and Purushotham. On July 23, 2020, the duo took Bharathi to the KIADB Office and asked officers to transfer the compensation amount of Rs. 2,37,50,000 through RTGS to her bank account after establishing her identity. 

Checking the documents and credentials, the KIADB officials suspected no foul play and transferred the money as Bharathi was the owner of the property. After the money was credited, Bharathi was accordingly informed by the two accused. 

As the compensation actually belonged to the Golf Club, the lady asked the duo to transfer the money to the Club. Both Ramegowda and Purushotham assured Bharathi that the money would eventually be transferred to the Golf Club. But on Apr. 6 last year, when the lady approached the bank she realised that Rs. 1.10 crore was transferred to the  Golf Club. 

Account statement reveals fraud

Suspicious, Bharathi asked the bank officials to provide her the account statement where she discovered that Rs. 1.14 crore has been siphoned off through the nine cheques she had issued to Ramegowda and Purushotham.

To her dismay, she found out that the accused had directly withdrawn Rs. 45 lakh and had transferred the rest of the money to the accounts of Prashanth, Lokesh, Komala, Santhosh, Eeregowda and Mahesh thrice through RTGS. A shocked Bharathi then confronted Ramegowda and Purushotham and demanded the money be returned. 

Her complaint stated that the duo had threatened to kill her if she again asked for the money. 

Suspecting a deep-rooted conspiracy, the Narasimharaja (NR) Police are making a detailed inquiry into the case to ascertain if there is involvement of others in the cheating racket.