Court’s arrest warrant against TN accused

Bengaluru: A local court on Monday issued a non-bailable warrant against accused number seven, a Chennai-based woman Balambal, after denying her anticipatory bail in the multi-crore fraud at Manipal Group.

The court also issued a proclamation order against Karthik Pandurangi, the brother-in-law of main accused Sandeep Gururaj, as an absconder.

Balambal has been accused of laundering over `2.54 crore that had been siphoned off from Manipal's accounts by the Gururaj, the former finance head of the city-based Manipal Group. Gururaj had acted in cahoots with his wife Charusmita, and their associate Amrita Chengappa and Amrita's mother Meera.

The prosecution had submitted before the court that just before their arrest on December 23, 2018, Gururaj, the kingpin and accused number one, and his wife, who is accused number two, met Balambal and her husband Suhail in Chennai at a resort.

They are well-connected in the corridors of power and had tried to avoid her arrest by exerting influence from a certain officer from Tamil Nadu on the local police, it has been learnt.

Balambal, an MBA-Finance, was accused of working in connivance with the other accused in managing trading in the commodities market by trading in natural gas with Gururaj and two other accused. She had traded for `2.54 crore in the market and had earned a profit of `13 lakh from trading.

Balambal had earlier approached the Madras High Court for anticipatory bail. An interstate anticipatory bail was then granted for a period of four weeks. The investigation had found that part of the over `2.54 crore was found in the Kotak Securities account of the petitioner.

The Cubbon Park police, in a submission to the court, had argued that Balambal was not a resident of Tamil Nadu and if given bail, might stop cooperating with the investigation. The police had expressed that she could abscond if granted bail.