HYDERABAD: The Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths booked a criminal case against a city businessman and his firm after 537 victims filed a complaint about being duped of over Rs 206 crore.
The complainants alleged that M Nethaji, the owner of Sri Priyanka Enterprise on Tilak Road in Abids that supplies screen printing material, and his family members cheated them of their money after assuring them a huge 15% annual interest on their investment.
Many of the victims, individually, invested over Rs 20 lakh in the scheme.
The CCS registered a case against M Nethaji, his son M Sri Harsha and Priyanka Enterprise under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120 B (conspiracy) of IPC. While the victims also accused Nethaji's wife, Vani Bala - general manager of Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank in Abids - of being involved in the crime, she has not been named in the FIR so far. All the three are currently at large.
Speaking to TOI, one of the victims, M Srinivasa Murthy, said the company has been collecting money in the name of investment from people for the last 18 years.
Wife of city bizman lured colleagues to invest in firm But from November 2023, the management became irregular about interest payment. This made some investors demand the company to return their investments," said Murthy adding, "When we asked about the whereabouts of Nethaji and his family members, we were told that one of his parents had died and he was busy with that."
On May 15, when some of the investors went to the Priyanka Enterprise office on Tilak Road, they found it was locked. One of the staff told the investors that it was shut by Nethaji. "Since then, Nethaji, his wife and his son have been inaccessible," a victim said.
Some victims approached Abids police who in turn directed them to CCS. On Monday, 537 investors declared that they had invested Rs 206 crore. Incidentally, most of the investors are either employees of the bank where Vani Bala works, or people linked to them. "Over a period of time, she lured her staff to invest in the company promoted by her husband by promising to pay high interest," said Murthy.