Peenya man cheats investors of Rs 10 crore in the name of Digital India

BENGALURU: A Peenya resident, accused of cheating people by promising to get them projects under the Centre's Digital India scheme, has ended up in Central Crime Branch's (CCB) 'most wanted' list. Sources said Vinay HS has cheated at least 10 to 15 people of at least Rs 10 crore, luring them to invest in business. At present, Vinay and his wife Kruthika C are on the run and the case has been transferred to CCB after multiple complaints were registered at various police stations, including Kodigehalli and High Grounds. Vinay HS claimed connections with influential people who could award the government projects and collected money from people. Though the couple has been running the scam since 2016, complaints were filed only in 2019, police said. He 'flaunted' closeness with IAS officers Vinay, who posed as someone close to people in 'power', would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with each victim. He'd send fake screenshots of messages exchanged between him and "IAS officers" discussing the project. "He would save his alternate number against the name of any IAS officer. In reality, all those messages were from him and to him. But his clients were made to believe that the officers were in talks with Vinay," police said. Prabhakar Shetty, a former chartered accountant who knew Vinay from 2015, said he lost around Rs 60 lakh. "He was working with me at a private firm in 2015. He quit and a few days later told me he was getting work orders from the Centre to digitise documents," Shetty said. Vinay had told Shetty that projects were worth several crores of rupees and that the profit margin was high. "I believed him and invested some money. But after collecting money, he claimed there was nobody to take care of his office as he had to travel to different parts of India to get projects. I quit my Infosys job and started to work in his office. After a few days, I realised he did not even pay rent," Shetty said.Shetty confronted Vinay, who promised to repay the money, but disappeared. "When I first met him in 2015, he had a two-wheeler and now he owns an Audi car," added Shetty, who is now unemployed and has a debt of Rs 30 lakh. The Organised Crime Wing (OCW) of CCB has found that Vinay and Kruthika had gone to Goa more than twice and spent money at casinos. DCP (crime) S Girish said a manhunt has been launched.