Putting more pressure on the police to expose all those involved in the ‘Gold Palace’ investment scheme and initiate quick recovery measures, a group of local investors who lost their money in a fraudulent deal intensified their protest in Kuttiyadi Is. Immovable properties of the main accused in the case.
A house in Kuttiyadi along with the land owned by the first accused VP Sameer is now in the custody of the protesters, who had also put up flags in the private property. Action committee leaders leading the movement say they are also planning to take over another house owned by another partner of the jewelery group.
For more than 10 months the depositors have been continuing their agitation and demanding strict action against those who are still at large. So far, around 300 investors have filed petitions with the local police. The money raised through the fake scheme was around 60 crores and most of the investors were from Kuttiyadi, Nadapuram and Payyoli police station limits.
According to some local investors, several top members of the board of directors of the jewelery group had already sought asylum in different countries to avoid police action.
The investigation into multi-crore frauds was launched in September, 2021 in view of the increasing number of complaints from the limits of various rural police stations. Kuttiyadi alone had 202 petitioners. Nadapuram and Payyoli stations had received over 100 complaints. Sensing the gravity of the matter, the police had sealed three showrooms of the jewelery group besides arresting one of its managing partners.
Action committee leaders said there are several schemes, including gold investments and cash deposits, that promise attractive monthly returns. According to him, there were even investors who had accumulated huge amount of gold ornaments for assured monthly income.
During investigation, the police found that the jewelery group was active with fraudulent schemes for more than four years. They came to know about this fraud when a group of duped investors protested in front of a rural branch of the jewelery group in Kalalachi. Seeing the public’s protest, some managerial partners immediately fled the spot.