Hyderabad: Nearly a year after grabbing headlines for winning the Lord Ganesh laddu auction at Gachibowli‘s upscale My Home Bhooja apartment complex, businessman Kondapalli Ganesh has landed in legal trouble, with the Cyberabad economic offences wing (EOW) booking him for allegedly cheating six investors of Rs 3.45 crore through promises of high returns.The case was registered on a complaint filed by Sylvia Srinivas Reddy, a resident of My Home Bhooja, who alleged that Ganesh, a fellow resident, projected himself as a successful businessman involved in wine shops and real estate ventures.“We are collecting details of the financial transactions between the six victims and the accused. Based on the evidence, we will initiate appropriate legal action against the accused,” an EOW official said.According to the complainant, Ganesh, along with an associate, B Kiran, approached her and her husband after the 2025 laddu auction and offered investment opportunities with a promise of 6% monthly returns.“The accused had deliberately established credibility by residing in My Home Bhooja, and successfully bidding for the Lord Ganesh laddu auctions in 2024 and 2025 for Rs 29 lakh and Rs 51.07 lakh,” the complainant said.“I invested Rs 31 lakh between Oct and Dec 2025, on the assurances by the accused. He executed an agreement on a non-judicial stamp paper on Dec 10 regarding the investment,” the complainant told police.Though the accused allegedly promised quarterly returns, he failed to honour the commitment. After repeated follow-ups yielded no results, the complainant said she contacted other residents and discovered that several others had allegedly been induced to invest under a similar scheme.“Collectively, six of us invested Rs 3.45 crore in the purported real estate and wine shops businesses of the accused. Later, it came to our knowledge that the accused had diverted the amounts to his associates and acquired properties in their names. He had vacated his flat and office by April this year, to evade investors seeking their money back,” the complainant alleged.Based on the complaint, the EOW registered a case against Ganesh and others on Aug 3 under sections 318(4) (cheating) and 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
