Vikram ponzi scam: Judicial custody for 4

BENGALURU: The four accused in the Vikram Investment ponzi scheme case were on Friday produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody.

The main accused, Raghavendra Srinath, is currently in the police custody and will be produced before the court on Saturday. His police custody is likely to extend by some more days.

The case is being currently investigated by Banashankari police and it is likely to be handed over to the CID.

The four accused include a former sports journalist, Sutram Suresh, Nagaraju, Narasimhamurthy and Prahalad, who were working as wealth managers of Vikram investment, as well as LIC agents.

The police said that so far more than 350 complaints have been registered from across the city.

On Friday, police took Raghvendra to his house in Banashankari and Malleswaram and found few bonds and other documents.

The police had raided the Vikram Commodities and Vikram Logistics Company in Chennai and taken Raghvendra Srinath to the companies to gather more information on the scam. 

The police have seized all the documents and are investigating for further more clues. 

The police also found out that Raghavendra was running an oil factory in Chennai and have seized documents from the place and sealed it.

The police also raided the houses of the other accused and seized passbooks and translation details of their accounts and other bonds similar to LIC bonds.

The police claim that properties worth crores have been seized and it can help depositors get back some of their money.

The incident came to light after P.R. Balaji, who owns Balaji Agarbathi Company, filed a complaint with the Banashankari police against the company for cheating him of Rs 11 crore.

Benami investments

The police said it was meticulously planned scam and after they froze Raghevendra’s 12 bank accounts, they found it only had '5,000.

His wife Sunitha, who is one of the directors of the company, is currently absconding and more than 40 agents were involved in the scam.

The police are trying to trace Sunitha and the agents involved in the scam.

Investigations revealed that Raghvendra and Sunitha were living in a rented house and had transferred all the money to benami accounts.

Raghvendra used to frequently visit Malaysia and is suspected to have invested huge amounts to purchase properties and shares abroad.

The police have hired private auditors to check the detailed transactions of the company and said that it will take few more days to file a detailed report.

The ponzi operators had succeeded in entrapping many high profile people in the field of sports, art, cinema, politics and commerce. 

Former cricketers Rahul Dravid, badminton icons Saina Nehwal and Prakash Padukone were among those who had invested their money.