He had Vijayawada's rich and mighty eating out of his hand

Syed Amin Jafri in Vijayawada

Who are the people who were tricked into lending huge sums of money to the self-proclaimed Euro lottery winner Kola Venkata Krishna Mohan? How much money did Kola Mohan rake in from financiers, money-lenders and friends before he was exposed as a fraud? Where did all the millions go?

These are precisely the questions which the Vijayawada city police is trying to find answers to even as it investigates the biggest case of fraud in this coastal city, perpetrated by a person who took everyone for a ride by exploiting the media and computers.

So far, the preliminary investigation by the police has just pointed to the outlines of the "cyber-aided crime." All the details would come out gradually as the investigation progresses. However, Vijayawada City Police Commissioner Sudeep Lakhtakia says Kola Mohan has collected money from about 30 to 35 financiers and others to the tune of Rs 70 to 80 million in the last one year. This includes money from businessmen, money-lenders, finance companies and even banks.

Local mediapersons say Kola Mohan borrowed Rs 230 million to Rs 250 million from about 40 people. Some Telugu newspapers have also speculated on the names of the creditors and the amounts lent out by them to the self-styled Euro lottery winner.

However, nobody seems to know the exact number of people cheated by Kola Mohan who went about borrowing huge amounts from the rich and mighty of Vijayawada on the promise that he would settle their accounts once the lottery proceeds were transferred to India after the "income tax tangle" was sorted out.

The problem has arisen because most of those who lent him money are not ready to lodge complaints with the police though they would like to help the police in "recovering" their money from Kola Mohan. "Many of the creditors, of course, have been meeting us and pleading with us to help retrieve their money but they are not very co-operative in revealing how much money was owed to them by Kola Mohan. Nor do they want to lodge written complaints with the police," points out Lakhtakia.

There are also discrepancies between the claims made by Kola Mohan and the information provided by the creditors. "Several people met us and told us that Kola Mohan owed them money. But some of them quoted only a few million rupees as the sum owed to them whereas our information is that they have lent much more to Kola Mohan. The reason for this is obvious. Since they have parked their black (unaccounted) money with him, they don't want to get into trouble with the income tax authorities," says another police official.

The police say part of the money that Kola Mohan borrowed was used for debt servicing. He claims to have paid Rs 10 million as interest to some creditors. He began borrowing more and more money to pay to the earlier creditors and to maintain his lavish style of living.

"Kola Mohan has been spending lavishly, holding parties and taking people abroad to impress them that he has won the Euro lottery. He even took some of his friends abroad, went around London and other cities in a Rolls Royce car with them, and visited some banks, brokers's offices etc in a bid to establish his credibility. His family members also accompanied him in some of the trips," says Lakhtakia.

Kola Mohan, a self-confessed compulsive gambler, told the police after his arrest that he had utilised part of the funds raised by him to clear the earlier debts of Rs 30 million which he incurred because of heavy losses in gambling. Since he had no house of his own all along, he also bought a big house in a posh area recently. He also bought as many as seven cars and a lot of electronic equipment.

The profile of his lenders drawn up by the police on the basis of their investigation so far indicates that Kola Mohan's creditors include some high-profile personalities who have lent him amounts ranging between Rs two million and Rs 10 million. From the big creditors, he mopped up Rs 30 million to Rs 40 million and the remaining amount from others.

Kola Mohan is also believed to have raised up to Rs 10 million from banks, including the Andhra Bank, which has now lodged a complaint against him for cheating. Other banks from whom he reportedly borrowed money or drew overdrafts are said to include the State Bank of Hyderabad, Vysya Bank and Canara Bank.

He now claims he has either spent the money or lost it on gambling and that he has no balance left with him. However, the police suspect that he has laundered something like Rs 30 million to 40 million and securely invested it abroad.

Explaining the modus operandi, one mediaperson recalls an interesting anecdote. The self-styled Euro lottery winner sought to join in a venture with the Sibar Trust and the Municipal Corporation of Vijayawada to set up an amusement park on the lines of Disneyland on the outskirts of the city with an initial outlay of Rs 100 million. He promised to contribute liberally for the project.

In the meantime, he borrowed Rs 5 million from the Sibar Finance Company on the promise of returning the amount as soon as he brought the Euro lottery money to India. Now, the company is contemplating lodging a complaint against him with the police for failure to pay up Rs 3.5 million still owed to it.

"So many of his childhood friends here are in top positions that Kola Mohan has had no difficulty in raising the money from them. He offered five to six per cent interest per month and he used to pay the interest promptly," says C V S Ramana Rao, a senior journalist at the Vaartha Telugu daily.

Except for the banks which have the records to pin down Kola Mohan, private creditors do not any have documentation for the loans extended by them. Kola Mohan too cleverly did not keep any records which could turn out to be "incriminating evidence" against him.

Will his victims ever be able to get their money back from Kola Mohan? That is the million rupee question staring the creditors in their faces. Even if the seven cars seized from Kola Mohan and his other movable and immovable properties are confiscated, they may not fetch more than Rs 10 million. This may be sufficient only to settle the dues of the banks.