Bank goes bust, couple held for cheating customers

The police on Sunday arrested the chairman and the managing director of Shreyas Souharda Cooperative Limited, and his wife, on charges of cheating customers.

The arrested are M Srinivas, (63) and his wife B G Pushpalatha, (55), residents of Vijaya Bank Layout on Bannerghatta Road. The couple are accused of cheating their customers of Rs one crore, said the Jayanagar police.

Srinivas was working as a branch manager of the erstwhile Vysya Bank in 1980s. He quit the job and decided to venture into banking business. He launched Shreyas Finance & Investments and succeeded.

Soon, he launched Shreyas Chits and Shreyas Souharda Cooperative Limited. He involved his son Sudeep, an architect and daughter-in-law Preethi in his business. He became the chairman and managing director, while his wife, son and daughter-in-law became directors, said the police.

Sinking business
The business ran into rough weather a year ago and Srinivas started facing financial crunch. Sudeep and Preethi realised that Srinivas’ business was sinking and resigned from their posts. They moved to Hong Kong a few months ago and settled there. Sudeep told his father before leaving the country that he was in no way connected with the crisis and asked his father to manage the situation, said the police.

In the third week of October, Srinivas closed his office on 9th Main Road at Jayanagar 5th Block and vanished along with his wife. At least 85 persons, who had invested in Srinivas’ various ventures, lodged complaints with the Jayanagar police.

A special team was formed to arrest the couple. The police, acting on definite clues, arrested the couple when they were moving in their car to Kudlu Gate on Hosur Road on Sunday.

During interrogation, Srinivas claimed that he never intended to cheat his customers. He claimed that he had diverted a part of his property into the real estate business, but failed to make good fortunes.

He found it difficult to disburse funds to his depositors and the news of financial crunch spread like a wild fire. He was not in a position to repay the deposits of his customers as all of them demanded money at the same time, he told the police.

Sudeep and Preethi may have very little role to play in Srinivas’ business. Police would summon them if need be, DCP (South) B S Lokesh Kumar said.