BENGALURU: Some residents of BDA’s phase-2 housing project in Alur have collectively lost between Rs 5 crore and Rs 6 crore in what looks like a miniature version of the IMA ponzi scam. The incident has also resulted in some hostilities among the residents as some of them had invested in the scheme after being suggested by their neighbours. Kiran Kumar Misro, a resident, is distraught as he and many of his family members have invested. He has filed a complaint with the CCB and will be filing an FIR with the Rajaji Nagar police station on Monday.
The kingpins of the scam –Jojipaul and Ashok Vitalwadi –who allegedly duped people through their wealth management company set up in 2019, Sanjose Wealth Management Pvt Ltd, were arrested last month, blowing the lid off the scam.
Many residents who are devastated, insist that action be taken against those residing in the BDA complex who encouraged them to invest. A resident said, “The company promised an interest rate of 10% with a payout every 35 days from the date of deposit. When they started making the payments for a few months to some who had invested, many 3 BHK and 2 BHK residents also invested. After some time, the payouts stopped.”
Misro told TNIE, “From March 28, 2021 to January 18, 2022, eight members of our family have invested around Rs 55 lakh.” In his complaint, he has named Vasanth Kumar and Naga Jyothi, her brother-in-law Raghavendra Hebbal and their “old friends” Vitalwadi and Jojipaul of hatching a plan to dupe others in the BDA layout.
A couple of the victims believe that the four named in the complaint are also victims themselves. “They got good returns and shared it with us. So, we also invested,” a victim claimed. Vasanth Kumar denied the allegations, and claimed, “Misro and I have some personal enmity over having cats as his daughter is allergic to them. We had a major fight. He is trying to malign me.”