Tomy A Varghese and Shini Tomy, the Malayali couple wanted in a multi-crore chit fund scam in Bengaluru, had scaled up the interest rates aggressively on fixed deposits in the past year, according to the investors who have filed complaints at Ramamurthy Nagar police station.
If they started off with lucrative rates around 10%, they raised it to 12% and even up to 20%. Screenshots of WhatsApp messages have also emerged showing attempts by the family to sell off assets. They owned a fully furnished 3BHK flat measuring 1615 sqft at Bhattarahalli near K R Puram.
The depositors have learnt from a man who was close to the family that they had bought the flat for around ₹1.1 crore and resold it at a much lesser price, well below ₹1 crore. “The cars were also sold. From the police, we understand that CCTV visuals show them leaving the apartment on July 3 with suitcases. The flat was sold with all the furniture. They must have been preparing to leave for the last year. The interest rates were considerably increased, mainly targeting pensioners,” one of the complainants said. The messages show that they were also planning to lease the flat.
Tomy’s house at Ramankari in Alappuzha looks abandoned with smeared walls and creepers lining the sunshade. A preliminary check on the bank accounts also revealed that they had withdrawn funds.
Tomy’s house at Ramankari in Alappuzha. Photo: Special arrangement
It is learnt that they had a licence to run chit funds up to ₹5 lakh, but advertised schemes for much higher sums and collected a huge amount from investors. Some of the investors also handed over amounts in cash to put in chit funds. Onmanorama reached out to the Karnataka Department of Co-operation and the Registrar to verify the allegations, but there was no response.
Till noon, Karnataka police have received complaints from over 350 investors, and each of them had invested huge sums. The police have collected the passport details to find out if the couple has left the country. While the couple’s daughter, who was employed in Bengaluru, was not reachable, the investors were able to talk to their son in Toronto once. Initially, he told us that he would get in touch with his parents and call back. He never called back. We tried to contact him from the police station also, but the calls went unanswered. All the remaining numbers are switched off,” said another complainant.
Tomy and Shini had built a reputation of sponsoring big events and then earning clients in return. “For one event, they sponsored the first prize of a bullet motorcycle or cash worth over ₹1 lakh. In return, they would want us to mobilise people to enrol in any of their chit fund schemes. Tomy also taught karate to children associated with church institutions. They would manage to get contacts and then would call them up directly to join their schemes. In the past year, the campaign was intense, it shows they were preparing to amass as much as they can and then leave,” said a depositor who had organised one such event.
Spurred by the growth, they also opened a branch in Mangaluru and also in Bengaluru. The branch at Bengaluru was shut down later. The couple had woven a large network of clients in and around Bengaluru and in places like Sarjapur, Bommanahalli mainly focusing on religious institutions to broaden their business.
Ramankari residents do not recollect much about Tomy. “He was an active worker of a party once. Their financial growth happened suddenly. We believed that they were into some business in Bengaluru which yielded good returns,” a resident said. The couple ran A&A Chits and Finance in Bengaluru since 2000. Onmanorama withholds the identity of investors based on their request.