Dr.Thomas (Special Correspondent)
T
he Banashankari police have arrested a gang of four including a former bank employee her mother and a couple who cheated a 63-year-old woman and made away with Rs.3.5 Crore .
The accused Arundhati,who worked as an Insurance agent along with her husband Rakesh,befriended the victim Shantha PN,from Banashankari,3rd stage after coming to know that she was living alone .
The couple won her trust and convinced her to sell off her house since it was vaastu Dosha (negative energy) .
The victim was living alone at the house after the death of her husband while her daughter was pursuing her studies in US, a senior officer,said.
After successfully convincing Shantha to sell the duo arranged the broker and the buyer and facilitated the sale of the house for Rs.3.5 crore .
Once the money was transferred to her account,the accused convinced her to invest the money and got her signatures on various forms .
They later colluding with the bank employee identified as Apoorva Yadav,transferred the money to various accounts and shared among themselves.
The accused cleared the loans and spent the money while Apoorva Yadav cleared the loans for her mother and father-in-law which they had incurred.The accused Apoorva also gave Rs.2 lakh to her boyfriend.
The fraud came to light when Ms.Shantha checked her bank account,shocked to see the money was missing and filed a complaint with the police.
Based on the complaint the police track down the trail of the money and arrested Visahala,mother of Apoorva .
Based on her information the police arrested Apoorva and recovered the money including Rs.45 lakh which she had transferred to her father-in-law account to clear his loan amount.
A total of four people have been arrested so far and as many as Rs.1.75 crore have been recovered,P. Krishnakant,DCP, south division, said.Efforts are on to recover the rest of the money,he added .
Mr.Krishnakant advised people to be careful while dealing with the strangers and not to discuss the financial status and share personal information,he added.
