Three persons, including a retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officer, were arrested on Saturday in connection with alleged misappropriation of investors deposits to the tune of Rs 1.75 crore.
The prime accused, identified as Vanapalli Ramprasad (58), a retired IAF Junior Warrant Officer, along with his associates G Ramana Babu and Aleti Ravi Kumar embezzled the investments made by at least 192 people whom they had promised higher returns through online commodity trading, DCP (Law and Order) P Viswa Prasad alleged.
A complaint in this regard was filed by one of the victims, A.S.V.G Rao, on August 22 after the trio shut down the office of their firm Ramtej Associates located in Seethammadhara area in Visakhapatnam. Rao alleged in his complaint that he had made investment of Rs 7 lakh in Ramtej Associates but got only Rs 1 lakh in return.
Police said the main accused, Ramprasad, used his experience in online trading of commodities like gold, crude oil etc. to lure investors. "Ramprasad and others collected Rs 3.79 crore from 192 investors. They disbursed back only Rs 2.11 crore to investors and misappropriated Rs 1.75 crore," the DCP said.
While Ramana Babu was employed as an administrative associate at Ramtej Associates, Aleti Ravi Kumar was an employee, he said. They have been booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of Indian Penal Code besides section 5 of Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors and Finance Establishment Act 1999. Police recovered gold ornaments weighing 53 gms, Rs 1.45 lakh in cash, three bikes, three computers, some land documents---collectively worth Rs 7 lakh---from the trio.
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