Cheating case filed against Union minister V Somanna's son

BENGALURU: Police have registered a criminal case against Arun BS, son of newly sworn-in Union minister of state for jalshakti and railways V Somanna, accusing him of cheating a couple in a business and later threatening and manhandling them over financial issues.
The complainant is a 40-year-old-woman from Sanjaynagar. Police have booked Arun and two others under Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of women, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, punishment for criminal intimidation, and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace.
Besides Arun, his associates Jeevan Kumar and Pramod Rao have also been booked in the case.
'Goons barged into home, slapped me & kids'
Cops said they will be issuing notices to Arun and others, directing them to appear before them with relevant documents.
The woman said Arun and her husband together started an event management firm in Feb 2019, which suffered losses. The couple claimed they had paid Arun Rs 81 lakh as their share in the joint venture. Yet, Arun was allegedly forcing the couple to pay Rs 65 lakh more. When the couple expressed helplessness, Arun allegedly beat them up.
"The trouble began when the event management firm suffered financial setbacks and Arun did not respond properly when her husband sought reasons for the same. Once, Arun abused the complainant and her husband before the staff and reduced their profit share from 30% to 10%. Later, Arun took one Jayaprakash's help in continuing the business. Then, Arun stopped paying the lease amount of the land, putting the couple in more financial distress.
"My husband decided to exit the firm. But Arun directed him to make the payment equal to the shares held in the firm. By then, the entire country was put under Covid lockdown, and we suffered huge financial loss, making it impossible for us to make the payment," the woman said.
Meanwhile, Arun was threatening to kidnap our children. Later, with great difficulty, we arranged Rs 81 lakh and gave it to Arun. Still, Arun made us sign on paper saying we need to pay Rs 65 lakh more to him. One day, some goons sent by Arun barged into our house and slapped me and children," she added.