Sachin Naik was a man who went by many names and duped many people under the banner of many companies. The Bengaluru police finally managed to nab him in December 2016 - and while the arrest opened a can of worms, the progress in the case has been slow.
But now, the CID, which took over the case, has made a breakthrough in the 1500-crore real estate scam in Bengaluru: Anoop KM, one of the directors of Dreamz Infra, was arrested from the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Monday. He was caught by a special sleuths of the CID of the while attempting to flee the country.
What’s more, according to a press release put forth by the CID, the main accused in the case, Sachin Naik, had financial interests in the Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL team, and had also funded a Bollywood film called Aradhana. The CID press release, however, does not mention the time period in which he was associated with the team or the movie. The man who swindled people of thousands of crores of rupees even paid Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan to be the Brand Ambassador for his online ventures, the CID has revealed.
The scam
In 2012, thousands of people invested anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore in three real estate companies in Bengaluru. The first, Dreamz Infra India Ltd, was run by Disha Choudhary. The second, Gruh Kalyan, was also run by Disha. The third, TGS, was run by Mandeep Kaur.
Disha is the first wife of Sachin Naik, and Mandeep is his second wife.
Sachin Naik alias Sumanth Kumar Das alias Yogesh Choudhary is a native of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, and moved to Mumbai and married Ayesha, who is now known as Disha Choudhary. The couple moved to Bengaluru in 2002 and started a finance company.
According to the police, a case of cheating was registered against the couple in 2009 for allegedly duping over 800 investors through Frontier Group.
Naik later started another construction company, TGS Construction, and his second wife, Mandeep Kaur was the Managing Director of the firm.
The company offered houses to people from the middle class, in prime locations at affordable rates and collected crores of rupees from them.
The investigation
During the course of the investigation, CID officials learnt that Naik had floated several companies, with 13 MDs and directors, with 48 projects across the city.
“So far, 82 cases have been filed against the accused across various police stations in Bengaluru, and we suspect that they floated many more companies and have duped more than 1,700 people to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore,” the press release said.
Till date, the police have arrested Naik, Disha Choudhary and Shataparni Majumdar, another accused in the case. “However, some of the key accused are absconding and we have formed special teams to track them down,” said a senior official part of the investigating team.
How Sachin Naik spent his money
Following the arrests, the CID’s probe in the many cases has revealed a part of what Sachin Naik did with the money he swindled from the people.
“With the money he collected, Sachin Naik produced a Hindi film Anuradha [in 2014], starring his first wife Disha. Later, he bought a 11.5 acre plot on Kanakpura Road and built a temple there,” the senior official told TNM.
The CID probe also revealed that Nayak had invested in the IPL team RCB, and had also allegedly paid top Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan in cash to star in an ad for one of his online business ventures.
CID sleuths are now trying to identify Sachin Naik’s movable and immovable assets and want to confiscate them for further course of action.