Belagavi, June 7 -- The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has officially unmasked a massive financial fraud orchestrated by Shivananda Neelannavar, revealing a sophisticated Ponzi scheme that has left thousands of investors in financial distress.

CID Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Bhimashankar Guled held a press conference on Saturday, detailing the scale of the deception and the ongoing recovery efforts.

"It has been proven that Shivananda Neelannavar has committed fraud. He was running a Ponzi scheme, using money from new investors to pay interest to earlier investors. He continued this until the interest payouts exceeded the fresh collections," Guled said.

Neelannavar has collected Rs 2,400 crore from the public so far....