High profile investors in one of the bigger ponzi scams in Bengaluru, like badminton icon Prakash Padukone, his wife Ujjala and daughter Anisha, including others, have approached the Karnataka High Court after police froze their bank accounts.
Following this, the HC on Wednesday issued notices to the banks concerned and the police.
Police say that they are freezing bank accounts of those people who have got back more money than their initial investments, in order to compensate people who have been duped.
“We have seized the bank accounts and the movable, immovable properties based on the (Sessions) court directions. Also we are analysing the in-going and out-going cash/ return on investments,” investigating officer Puttaswamy told TNM.
According to TOI, the accounts of businessmen who earned profit of Rs 35 crore to those who gained Rs 1,000, have been frozen.
These people say that the police’s move to freeze bank accounts is illegal and claimed that they have not been issued notices for the same.
However, Puttaswamy refuted the claim saying, “We have sent them notices,” denying knowledge of the High Court case.
The scam was unearthed earlier in March after one investor businessman complained about being cheated out of Rs 12 crore.
Read: The big Bengaluru Ponzi scam: Dravid, Prakash Padukone, Saina among victims?
Upon investigations, police found that there were multiple victims including sport stars like Sania Nehwal, Prakash Padukone, Rahul Dravid and the scam was running into hundreds of crores.
Former Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid who was conned by Vikram Investments, had officially registered a complaint with the police on March 18, a week after the scam broke. Dravid, in his complaint, had said that he was yet to get back Rs 4 crore out of an investment of Rs 20 crore.
Soon after that, Ragavendra Srinath, who ran Vikam Investments and his associates Narasimha Murthy, Prahalada, KC Nagaraj and Sutram Suresh, were arrested and they continue to remain in jail.