Noida police arrests CMD of pharma firm from Bengaluru for defrauding investor of ₹70 crore

The pharma company has offices in Dubai and Chennai while the investor, a Delhi resident, runs a firm in Noida's Sector 18.

The chairman and managing director of a pharmaceutical company has been arrested from Bengaluru for allegedly defrauding an investor of ₹70 crore six years ago, Noida police said on Thursday.

The accused has been booked under various sections of the IPC, including cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, criminal intimidation and party to criminal conspiracy. (iStock)

The pharma company has offices in Dubai and Chennai while the investor, a Delhi resident, runs a firm in Noida's Sector 18.

Shakir Hussain alleged that he was tricked into investing money into Novo Health Care in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and was shown forged balance sheets of the company by the accused, Ramani Kalpati Ramachandran Venkata, a native of Chennai, according to the FIR.

On December 5, 2023, Hussain lodged a complaint at Sector 20 police station alleging that the accused duped him of ₹70 crore on the pretext of investment in his company, a police spokesperson said.

"On the basis of the complaint, an FIR was registered in the case and the matter was investigated. On Wednesday, with the help of electronic surveillance and technical evidence, Venkata was held from Bengaluru (Karnataka)," the spokesperson said.

Venkata has been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 467, 468 and 471 (all related to forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (party to criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said.

Further investigation and legal proceedings are underway in the case, in which some others are also involved, they said.