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Belagavi: Appugol aide held for trying to sell property, customers shocked

According to sources, Appugol had invested crores in buying five properties in Patil's name in Belagavi city.

Belagavi: Belagavi police have identified more than 100 properties which film producer Anand Appugol managed to buy, before cheating customers of his Sangolli Rayanna Cooperative Bank to the tune of Rs 250 crore.

In spite of police department's directives against selling any of his properties, until the bank returned all the deposited customers' money, it has come to light that Appugol's associates are trying to sell some of properties secretly.

Besides arresting a close associate of Appugol, Sanjay Patil, the police are interrogating Sub-Registrar of Belagavi Suresh Handigund and another Dr Rao in connection with the attempts to sell five of Appugol's properties illegally.

On identifying properties of Appugol located at various places in the state, measures were taken by the police to ensure that none of them were sold until depositors got their money back.

According to sources, Appugol had invested crores in buying five properties in Patil's name in Belagavi city. More people involved in this property deal are expected to be arrested shortly. Sub-Registrar Handigund also landed in trouble for initiating these deals and admitted to police that he wanted to take up registration of the properties under pressure from lawyers.

Police have asked him to give his statements in writing. When Appugol’s came up for hearing recently in a local court, Belagavi police already informed the court on properties owned by Appugol and measures taken to prevent their sale.

Local police had earlier issued a notice to Sanjay Patil ordering him to report to the investigating officers. However, Patil did not respond and continued his effort to sell properties to one Dr Rao, a resident of Belagavi.

The attempts to sell Appugol’s properties have come as a shock to thousands of bank customers, who are waiting desperately to get their deposits back.

Even as the deposited amount is more than Rs 250 crore, sources estimated the total value of assets owned by Appugol was not more than Rs 80 to 100 crore. After beingin jail for several weeks, Appugol managed to get bail in Dharwad High Court Bench three months ago.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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