Couple cheats man of Rs. 2 crore by promising ‘Horlicks’ agency

Mysuru: Ashokapuram Police have arrested a woman and are on the lookout for her husband for cheating their company’s employee of Rs. 2 crore after they pledged his property documents as a surety at a bank to take a loan. The woman has been identified as Madhura and her husband who is on the run is Naresh. Both are the residents of Bengaluru. The couple had, sometime back, opened Avighna Enterprises at Kuvempunagar in Mysuru and had appointed one Aravind to manage the office. They promised him to get him an agency of GlaxoSmithKline to distribute Horlicks in Mysuru. Influenced by their smooth talk and promises, Aravind fell into the trap easily as the couple told him that he would be the sole distributor of Horlicks in Mysuru and he could make good business. Aravind was told by the couple that it requires a sizeable investment to procure the agency and the money has to be deposited with the company. Aravind then convinced his mother Aruna to part with the property documents that was worth crores of rupees. He then handed over the documents to Madhura and Naresh and they, in turn, promised him that they would return the documents in a month or two. After some time, the couple closed their company and fled the city after obtaining Rs. 2 crore loan from Karnataka Bank by pledging Aravind’s property documents. This had not come to Aravind’s knowledge and whenever he called them, the couple was seeking more time to return the documents. As the couple failed to pay the loan instalments, the Bank sent a notice to Aravind’s house as the pledged property documents were in his name. Shocked by the notice, Aravind told the Bank officials that he had not taken any loan from the Bank. He later approached the Bank with his advocate and the Bank officials showed him the loan papers. Aravind then filed a petition in the First Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Mysuru and the Court ordered Ashokapuram Police to investigate. Investigating the case, the Police booked Naresh, Madhura and Naresh’s brother Dinesh. They are on the lookout for the other accused. Police probe revealed that the accused had cheated Swaroop of J.P. Nagar, Yogesh of Vijayanagar and one Sunil by obtaining their property documents and pledging them at different Banks. This way, the couple cheated unsuspecting victims of crores of rupees. They also used such sureties to obtain Rs. 36 lakh from Margadarsi Chit Fund, the Police said.