ED arrests credit society chief in 250 cr PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said that it has arrested Anand Balakrishna Appugol, the Chairman of Krantiveer Sangolli Rayanna Urban Co-operative Credit Society, in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case for cheating 26,000 people to the tune of Rs 250 crore.

"We arrested the accused person under relevant sections of PMLA. He was produced before Special Bengaluru court. The ED sought their custody. After hearing the argument the court has given us his seven days custody," said the ED official.

The ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of FIR registered by Khade Bazar Police Station. The police case was of criminal breach of trust and cheating against Anand Balakrishna Appugol and 15 others.

The ED officials said that prima facie, investigation revealed that the Society had collected around Rs 250 crore of deposits till March 2017 from more than 26,000 public depositors.

The accused had promised the depositors that their money will be returned along with high rate of interest.

However, the society failed to return the money to the public depositors in time and committed breach of trust and cheated the public at large.


"The accused person siphoned off the amounts and bought immovable and movable assets. Thus they committed cheating to get rich," said an official.

The official said that due to this the public depositors suffered huge losses.

The ED official will now record the statements of the accused person and will confront him with documents and evidences.

Further investigation in the matter is on. - IANS