Rs 70 cr fraud at Manipal group: Police arrest Chennai woman

Team Udayavani, Aug 12, 2019, 12:53 PM IST

Bengaluru: Cubbon Park police arrested a 32-year-old woman in connection with the Rs 70 crore fraud at Manipal Education and Medical Group.

The arrested S Balambal, an MBA graduate is said to be a friend of Sandeep Gururaj, the main accused in the case.

Balambal was arrested from her residence in Chennai on Friday and has been remanded to 5-day custody to gather further details about the case.

It is gathered that on December 23, 2018, a week before his arrest, Sandeep had met the lady and her husband at a Chennai resort and held discussions on financial investments with them. Later an amount of Rs 2.5 crore was transferred to Balambal’s account for investing in the commodity market and she received Rs 13 lakh as her payment from the accused.

The police are investigating her role in the embezzlement of funds by Gururaj.

The fraud came to light in December last year after MEMG Ranjan Pai filed a complaint with the Cubbon Park police accusing Gururaj, who was employed as Deputy General Manager (Finance) at the group, of fund misappropriation.

The police had arrested Gururaj, 38; his wife Charusmita, 30, who is accused of starting a company into which a part of the stolen funds was transferred; Amrita Chengappa, 34, who was Gururaj’s lover and her mother Meera Chengappa, 59, from Koramangala.