Karnataka High Court declines to quash 11 FIRs in ₹40-crore loan fraud case

Karnataka High Court upholds 11 FIRs in ₹40-crore loan fraud case, rejecting claims of purely civil disputes.

The High Court of Karnataka has refused to quash 11 First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against Mangaluru-based Roshan Saldanha and his associates for allegedly cheating multiple victims of over ₹40 crore under the guise of arranging easy loans.

The allegation show a clear “design made by the accused to hoodwink the complainants” said Justice M. Nagaprasanna while dismissing 11 petitions filed by Roshan, his wife Dafney Neethu D’Souza, and N. Chandrashekar of Chitradurga, an associate of Roshan.

The FIRs were registered on complaints lodged by businessmen and professionals from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Bengaluru, and Kerala.

The alleged modus operandi of Roshan was similar in all cases as he and his agents promised large loans, ranging from ₹6 crore to ₹250 crore, at exceptionally low interest rates of 4-6% per annum.

Victims were then asked to pay 2% of the loan amount as “stamp duty” or “security deposit,” running into crores.

After the money was transferred to designated bank accounts of the accused, often in the names of shell entities like Balaji Enterprises, Akshaya Agency, or Sri Sai Consultants, the accused allegedly went silent or avoided taking calls or made false excuses for delay.