The Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials on Monday busted a gang of five, allegedly running a CSR fund racket to offer crores of rupees to businessmen and NGOs from corporate funds and pocketing the commission. The police recovered ₹30 crore in fake currency of ₹500 and ₹2,000 denominations and ₹23.4 lakh in cash from them.
Explaining the modus operandi, City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said that the accused would approach businessmen, NGOs, and trusts offering to get CSR funds from corporate houses and demand 40% commission.
The accused even showed the fake currency neatly packed in boxes ready to be delivered through video calls to lure the victims. Once the commission amount was transferred, the accused would hoodwink the victims and escape.
Using the modus operandi, the accused had cheated many people until they approached a city-based businessman and offered him ₹1 crore CSR funds for his business venture and demanded a commission of ₹25 lakh. The accused also showed the currency-filled boxes to be delivered to the victim as soon as the commission was paid.
Suspecting something fishy, the businessman alerted the police and the CCB officials arrested the accused, identified as Kishore, Sudhir, Chandrashekhar, Vinay, and Teertha Rishi.
According to the police, Kishore, the prime accused, had incurred a huge loss in the hotel business and also lost money in a similar fraud, and started using the same modus operandi to recover the money. He roped in his associates who used to approach people offering CSR funds posing as representatives of reputed companies .
The accused were earlier involved in similar cheating complaints and have cases against them in neighbouring States, a police officer said.
Mr. Dayananda asked the people who were cheated by this gang to approach the police.
