The deputy general manager of the Manipal Educational and Medical Group, Sandeep Gururaj, and his wife along with two others have been arrested for allegedly defrauding an amount of Rs 62 crore from the company account for three years.
The other accused are Sandeep's wife Charusmitha (30), his former colleague Amritha Chengappa (34), her mother Meera Chengappa (59) and a pilot named Vishal Somanna, who works for Qatar Airways. Police have arrested everyone except for Vishal who is still on the run.
Sandeep (38) is alleged to be the mastermind behind the fraud of moving funds to different offshore accounts registered under fake companies and investing in several ventures. He also toyed with the personal accounts of Dr Ranjan Pai, managing director and chief executive officer of the Manipal group, and his wife Shruti Pai.
The act came to light after Ranjan noticed unaccounted transfer of more than Rs 3 crore to an offshore account from his personal bank account. He came to know about this when the bank called for a confirmation on the money transfer. Being suspicious over the foul play, Ranjan approached the police. The company suspected the role of an insider and asked for an internal probe.
The financial fraud had gone unnoticed for three years as Sandeep was a trusted employee and had tracks on the company accounts. Being the head of finance and treasury, he had access to all the company accounts including that of Mr and Mrs Pai.
According to the police, Sandeep had transferred an amount of Rs 7.65 crore of Ranjan's money to his and his wife's accounts and channelled company's funds worth Rs 18.87 crore to his friend Vishal's Doha account, which he then transferred to the bank accounts of Amritha and Meera.
He had also made many foreign investments and had bought several plots in Bengaluru, Mumbai and many other places. The police have frozen all the accounts and assets of Sandeep and are further investigating over the matter.
