Pramesh S Jain
T
he Basaveshwaranagar police have arrested the father of Rahul Tonse,a businessman,involved in infamous Sandalwood Drugs case,for cheating a city-based businessman of Rs.25 crore offering investments in Casinos.
The accused is Ramakrishna Rao,named as prime accused in the case while his son Rahul,A4 among other family members in the case is on the run and efforts are on to track him down ,
The others named in the FIR are Rao’s wife Rajeshwari, daughter Raksha Tonse and son-in-law Chetan Narayan.
The police have booked the case under Sections 316(2) (Criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (Cheating) of the BNS and also under Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act.
According to the complainant,Vivek P Hegde,from Basaveshwaranagar,the cheating occurred between February 2023,and February 2025.
Hegde told the police that Rao conspired with Rahul and Raksha and cheated him and his friends of Rs.25.50 crore.
The accused lured Mr.Hedge to invest in Casinos owned by them in Sri Lanka assuring higher returns .
The complainant even visited Sri Lanka to check the business and lured him to invest more and more guaranteed high returns which prompted him to borrow money from relatives and friends and invested .
The accused had also told the complainant that they have started bitcoin business in Dubai and invested around Rs.50 crore which they would get higher margins soon.
The fraud came to light when Mr.Hedge did not received any returns as promised and when asked the accused threatened him with dire consequences and even blocked him numbers.
