Sujit Cherian and Sunil Cherian, brothers and promoters of Kerala Fashion Jewelery (File)
Chennai:
Two promoters of popular Kerala Fashion Jewelery (KFJ) have been arrested in Chennai for allegedly duping 26 crore deposits made by at least 1,689 customers under various gold buying schemes between 2016 and 2019.
The Special Judge Court had refused to grant bail to Brothers Sujit Cherian, MD and Sunil Cherian, Director, as part of the protection of the interests of depositors from Tamil Nadu.
Suresh, DSP, Economic Offenses Wing, said, “Yes, we have arrested both. The court has refused to grant them bail. In 2019, the police charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and abetment to delivery of property. A case was registered.” NDTV confirmed the development.
Hopefully this can pave the way for some kind of recovery.
Sridevi Ramakrishnan had pledged her 312 grams of gold for a loan of 5.4 lakhs under KFJ’s gold loan scheme during an emergency in 2016.
Though she repaid the loan, she was able to get back only 15 grams of gold. “He had promised to settle it with the proceeds of the sale of his property, but nothing happened,” Ms Ramakrishnan said. The plans were supported by actor Prakash Raj and actor-director Lakshmi Ramakrishnan.
Jiji Mathew, an IT professional who had accumulated a total of Rs 5.7 lakh since 2017, was paying Rs 25,000 a month under a scheme that would freeze gold at the lowest price. “I had hoped that the gold saving chit scheme would help my daughter’s higher education. But they closed shop in 2019 and our plan failed,” he said.
“The arrests were long overdue as they were buying time in the name of talks. Hundreds of people have remained silent. At least now the authorities should freeze their properties and start recovery.”
Civil engineer S Lingasamy, who filed the first complaint, had indulged in a five-year plan to buy 100 grams of gold at Rs 1,999 per gram, when the scheme alone incurred a loss of Rs 2 lakh. He also made another investment. He thought that the increase in gold prices would help in the education of his children.
“The brother’s mother and the wife of one of them are also KFJ directors. Why didn’t the police arrest them?” He asked.
The Cherian brothers blamed this on a false campaign of vested interests in an affidavit that claimed to have led to a massive withdrawal of deposits and consequently shut down their gold reserves.
Though he sought bail to dispose of the mortgaged properties of the depositors, the court rejected it, citing the possibility of “tampering of evidence”.
The prosecution has claimed that the brothers gave the money to Benami and friends.
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