While Bengaluru police have maintained that the Malayali couple, accused in ₹100-crore chit fund fraud case, left for Kenya, the duo has filed a petition seeking anticipatory bail and quashing of FIR in the Bengaluru Urban court. The petition was filed in the Principal City Civil and Sessions court, Bengaluru, on July 18.

Case details accessed by Onmanorama show that the petition was heard on July 24 and July 30 and has been posted for hearing on August 2. When the case was taken up on July 24, the Public Prosecutor who appeared for Ramamurthy Nagar Police sought time to file an objection.

Onmanorama got in touch with the counsel who filed the petition for anticipatory bail, and he said that the petitioners, Tomy A V and Shini Tomy, are at present in India. He did not mention whether they were in Bengaluru. "They left the country to attend a function. This happened even before the FIR was filed. Somebody with enmity towards the couple fabricated charges and engineered the panic. They could not be reached on their phones because they were in another country," Advocate Siji Malayil told Onmanorama. Since the case is under the consideration of the court, he declined to divulge further details about the petition. He also said that he did not know whether the chit fund offices are currently operational.

When asked whether the couple sold out their apartment, assets and other properties in a hurry and left the country, Siji said that he was not authorised to talk about that. "All I can tell you is that, they have run the chit fund for about 25 years and there was never a complaint. The entire charges are false. The primary objective is to seek bail. Someone who held a grudge came up with a complaint, spread panic and all others joined the group," said Siji.

D Devaraja, DCP East, Bengaluru city, had earlier told Onmanorama that the couple vacated their flat on July 3 and left for Kenya. Onmanorama had contacted a correspondent with The Kenya Times seeking information on the couple's arrival in Kenya. The correspondent responded that the Kenyan police had no information on the matter.

Although Bengaluru police reiterated that the couple fled to Kenya, the cops had declined to comment on how they left the country. The case has now been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (Economic Offences) under the Karnataka police. CID has been made a respondent in the petition for anticipatory bail.

Meanwhile, the investors who allegedly lost their money in the chit fund have formed a collective, and according to their estimate, the total investment amounts to well over ₹300 crore. Karnataka police have not given an official statement on the scale of the amount allegedly duped from the investors in the chit fund. The DCP has told the media that most of the complainants are from Kerala and that after preliminary investigation, the cops had contacted FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) regarding arrival of the couple at the airport. He said that they left on tourist visa and were scrutinising bank details and financial statements.

The investors have held regular meetings to discuss about legal action to be taken in the case. According to police, there are people who have lost ₹20-40 lakh in the chit fund scam. Many of them are at a loss trying to find ways to recover the money.

Ramamurthy Nagar police registered a case based on a complaint filed by an investor named Savio P T. The accused, Tomy A Varghese and his wife Shiny Tomy, owned A & A Chits and Finance at Ramamurthy Nagar, Bengaluru. The institution also has a branch office at Surathkal, Mangalore. 

Tomy and Shiny have been booked under relevant sections of the BUDS Act (Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes) and on charges of cheating.