Pramesh S Jain
T
he Central Crime Branch officials arrested a couple and their friend among three for cheating a realtor luring him into a rupees six crore offer for turning hostile in a case where he was a witness.
The accused Rekha,38,a BSc graduate her husband Manjunath Achari,40,a MBA and a businessman and their friend Chethan,a financial advisor for a private company.
The police have recovered a bank account where the accused transacted as many as Rs.24 crore in the last two years .
Bengaluru Police Commissioner,B Dayananda told reporters that the trio contacted a city based relator , who is a witness to the Carlton fire tragedy case and lured him into their trap.
As per the plan,they told the realtor that the carlton association is offering 25 crore money to the three witnesses to turn hostile and clinched a deal of Rs.6 crore with him.
They told the realtor that the money has been deposited in the back account belonging to a woman which has been freezed by ED and IT officials.
On the pretext of getting the money released they took the realtor to different offices on the pretext of talks and convinced him to pay Rs. 5.7 crore to return along with the six crore .
convinced with their charm,the realtor paid the money and the accused escaped soon after getting the money .
Based on the complaint,the police track down Rekha from a Paying guest accommodation in Hosakote where she was hiding .
The police later track down Manjunath from his house in Ayyappa Nagar in KR Puram and Chethan from his home town in Sakaleshpur.
Probe revealed that the accused Rekha is habitual offenders had cheated many people offering them loan and help in investing their money .
The accused had even trapped a private firm employee into chatting over phone and blackmailed him to extort Rs. 31 lakh,the probe revealed .
The police have taken the trio into custody to ascertain their criminal background .
