In a breakthrough in the multi-crore Dreamz Infra India Ltd. case where thousands of citizens were allegedly duped by the developer, a team of officials from the Bengaluru’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID), nabbed company director Anoop K.M. from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on Monday.
According to CID officials, Anoop — one of the accused in the case — was trying to flee the country when he was arrested. A lookout circular for him was issued after the police arrested another director and prime accused Sachin Nayak in December last year.
During the course of the investigation, CID officials learnt that Nayak, apart from Dreamz Infra, had floated other companies like TGS Construction Private Ltd. and Gruh Kalyan Properties with 13 MDs and directors. A total of 48 projects were across the city.
“So far, as many as 82 cases have been filed against the accused in various police stations, and we suspect that they floated many companies and duped as many as 1,700 people to the tune of ₹150 crore,” a senior police officer said.
Till date, the police have arrested Nayak, his wife Disha Choudhary, and another key accused Shataparni Majumdar. “However, some of the key accused are absconding and we have formed special teams to track them down,” the officer added.
A trail of fraud
The investigation has also shed some light on how Nayak diverted money from flat buyers. Nayak alias Sumanth Kumar Das alias Yogesh Choudhary is a native of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, and moved to Mumbai where he married Ayesha, who later came to be known as Disha Choudhary. They moved to Bengaluru in 2002 and launched a finance company. According to the police, a case of cheating was registered against the couple in 2009 for allegedly duping over 800 investors.
Nayak later floated another construction company, TGS Construction, in the name of his second wife Mandeep K. and made her one of the directors.
The company offered flats in prime locations at cheaper rates and collected crores of rupees from investors, who were mainly retired government and army officials, said the officer.
With the money, he produced a Hindi film “Anuradha” starring his first wife Disha; brought a 11.5 acre plot of land on Kanakpura Road and constructed a temple, the CID probe revealed.
Nayak also invested in an IPL team and allegedly paid a top Bollywood actor in cash to star in an ad for one of his online ventures. “He floated online business companies,” a police officer said.
CID officials are now making efforts to identify the movable and immovable properties of the accused and contemplating to confiscate them for further course of action, a senior police officer added.
