BENGALURU: A city civil and sessions court has sentenced Mohamed Idhrees of an investment firm to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for cheating a man of Rs1.50 lakh after promising him 7% returns per month.
The court has also ordered Idhrees to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh.
The complainant paid Rs 1 lakh in cash to Idhrees and transferred Rs 50,000 to the bank account of a person referred by him even before his investment firm came into existence in December 2013.
The court said Idhrees has been convicted in eight similar cases, and he is involved in nearly 10 such cases wherein serious allegations of cheating and defrauding have been levelled against him. Similar cases are pending against him in Tamil Nadu. He was arrested in another case at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu some time ago.
Considering the aggravating and mitigating factors, the court said that Idhrees, who is a partner of the investment firm, committed a white collar offence, which bleeds the nation’s economy.
Satish J Bali, Judge of XLVII Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, passed the order on Friday on a charge-sheet filed against him in 2015 by CCB (Fraud and Misappropriation Squad) under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 9 of the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2004.
The court, acquitted him of the offences under Section 9 of the Act. It also acquitted other accused Mohammed Ameer Basha of M/s Fosterfin Capital Management, and Venkatachalam Ramachandran of offences punishable under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 9 of the Act, as the prosecution failed to prove their role in deceiving the victim.