Representational imageDubai: A Malayali software professional has been accused of duping his colleagues in the United Arab Emirates of more than 1.75 million Emirati dirhams (about Rs 3 crore) in return for partnership in a non-existent real estate business. The accused has fled to India using a forged passport.
Deepak Krishna, a native of Mulankandam near Kollam, had been working on his fraudulent scheme since January 2011, his colleagues said in a complaint raised with the Dubai Police. They have also approached the Indian consulate in Dubai and the Kollam police for help to trace Deepak.
They said Deepak introduced himself as the nephew of an influential BJP leader in Kozhikode. He told his colleagues that he planned to quit his job in the Dubai company after two years to start his own real estate company. He convinced many of his colleagues to invest in his yet-to-be-formed company.
Many of them fell for the offer and gave Deepak small amounts. Deepak built on the trust by giving them cheques as security and even paying modest dividends every month. This made his “investors” bold enough to pay him larger amounts, up to half a million dirhams in some cases.
By 2014 end, however, the dividends suddenly stopped. Deeapk said the business had entered a rough patch and offered to return the investments within three months.
The suspicious investors finally did some checks and found that Deepak owned neither real estate nor any other business in Dubai. They also found out that their colleague has been sending their money home. When confronted, he threatened them using his political clout, the victims said in their complaint.
They deposited for clearance the cheques given by Deepak and lodged a complaint with the Dubai police. He was arrested and his passport impounded. He was convicted in four cases. He was sentenced to six months in prison and fined in two cases apart from two months in prison in two other cases.
He got out of the jail and left the country using a forged passport, the complainants alleged.
Back in Kerala, Deepak was seen launching a television channel in a function attended by political, cultural and spiritual leaders.
His house at Kairali Nagar remains under lock and key. His sister and brother-in-law who live in Kochi denied any link to the whole episode.
Deepak is believed to have tricked many others in the UAE, D. Aravind, one of his victims, told Onmanorama. They allege that the Kollam police had not acted on their complaint yet.
Aravind, who hails from Kollam, said they were facing bank loan defaults just because they believed their colleague. S.D. Manjusha, J.Hari, R. Kumar (Kollam), A. A. Wahid (Thiruvananthapuram) and S. Chapya (Gujarat) are the other complainants.
