Belagavi: Film producer and director and also chairman of the Sangolli Rayanna Credit Cooperative Society, Anand Appugol, who was absconding after agitations by thousands of his society's customers demanding return of their deposits, was arrested by the Belagavi police in Mumbai on Monday morning.
He had gone underground a month ago when the customers intensified their agitations across Belagavi city, demanding his immediate arrest.
Confirming his arrest, DCP Amarnath Reddy said that he is being brought by a team of police officials to Belagavi and will be produced before a local court on Monday evening. Mr Reddy said that a hunt was on to find Appugol for the last some weeks amid reports that he was trying for an anticipatory bail to avoid the arrest.
According to sources, Appugol's lawyers had applied for bail in different courts in Belagavi, but could not get it as Belagavi police had asked courts not to grant him bail in the wake of rising protests against him by customers. After a JMFC rejected his bail petition two weeks ago, another application was moved by his lawyers for bail in another local court. However, chances of courts giving him anticipator bail were bleak as the number of complaints being filed against him is on the rise.
Appugol established more than 50 branches of his society in the past two decades and his business was thriving until a few months ago as none of customers had ever complained against him till now.
Sources close to him said that he invested in real estate on a big scale and bought many plots of land, farmhouses, bungalows, fields, etc., in the last two decades besides several posh and high-end cars and SUVs. Mr Appugol has assured his customers and management of the society that he would pay the depositors within months.
He is likely to ask the court time to settle the dues when the case comes up for hearing shortly.
Appugol shot into fame when the Kannada film “Krantiveer Sangolli Rayanna”, produce by him, became a big hit. He has produced and directed many Kannada films and also entered politics a decade ago.
