Bengaluru: Kerala couple booked for duping investors in chit fund scam

The couple, A V Tomy, who is a native of Ramankari in Alappuzha, and his wife Shiny Tomy, ran A&A Chit Fund and Finance in Ramamurthy Nagar in Bengaluru.

Since Wednesday, the couple are uncontactable and appear to have vanished after selling their house and vehicle. Their phones remained switched off.

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First complaint

The first police complaint was made by Savio PT, a 64-year-old resident of Ramamurthy Nagar. He alleged that his family lost around Rs 70 lakhs in the scheme. The suspects, he claimed, cheated many others of several crores.

“When we checked on July 5, the building was locked. They stopped answering our calls, and their phones were switched off,” Savio told the police. Although their office is functioning, the employees there have no clue about the whereabouts of the husband and wife.

The first FIR was filed on July 5 and then subsequently many others have come forward to file their complaints.

Scale of the fraud

By Sunday (July 6) evening, the police had received complaints from 265 individuals. Preliminary estimates suggest the scale of the alleged fraud could be as high as Rs 100 crore.

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The police booked the suspects under the Chit Funds Act, 1982 and the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019. They also invoked sections 318(4) (cheating) and 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Most victims are Malayalis

Most of the victims are reportedly Malayalis, who said they were convinced to invest since the couple had connections with Malayali community organisations. The chit-fund firm is said to have been operating for 20 years.