BENGALURU: Three persons, including a husband-and-wife duo, have been arrested by Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths for allegedly cheating a realtor of Rs 5.75 crore. Realtor Nisar Ahmed had filed the complaint on January 13. The accused have been identified as Rekha (38), her husband Manjunathachari (40) and their friend Chetan (35). Rekha was arrested from a PG accommodation in Hoskote and her husband from KR Puram on January 16. Both of them were sent to 14-day police custody on January 17. Chetan, who was arrested in Sakleshpur on January 22, was sent to police custody for five days.
The woman, who is the main accused, told the realtor that she and two others were the key witnesses to the February 2010 Carlton Towers fire tragedy and that the building owner had promised to give them Rs 25 crore to turn hostile.
She claimed that Rs 6 crore has already been deposited in her account, but due to nonpayment of taxes, her account was frozen by the ED and IT.
She initially asked the realtor to help her with Rs 7 lakh to get the account unfrozen by paying the taxes. She also hoodwinked him into giving her Rs 1 crore, promising to give him Rs six crore when the entire amount is deposited in her account. Subsequently, Ahmed gave Rs 5.75 crore in total to Rekha.
“Rekha had contacts with financiers and private banks and was assisting people who wanted loans. Ahmed came in contact with Rekha in 2023 as he was in need of some loan,” said an officer.
There are many cheating cases and a cheque bounce case against Rekha at various police stations. After finding out that she is a habitual offender and cheated many people by dropping the names of politicians, the realtor approached the CCB and filed a complaint. Following this, Rekha’s bank accounts were frozen. The police officers also found out that bank transactions worth nearly Rs 24 crore were made from her account from 2022 to 2024.
Rekha is also accused of cheating an engineer through a social networking service platform. She blackmailed him of Rs 3.1 lakh by threatening to share his private videos. The engineer had filed a complaint against her with the Basavanagudi police.