Chennai Jewellery Store Cheats Hundreds Of Gold Deposits, 2 Arrested

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Chennai: Two promoters of the favored Kerala Fashion Jewellery (KFJ) are arrested in Chennai for allegedly swindling 26 crore deposits made by a minimum of 1,689 customers under various gold purchase schemes between 2016 and 2019.
Brothers Sujith Cherian, the MD, and Sunil Cherian, director, were denied bail by the special judge court under Tamil Nadu Protection of Interest of Depositors.

“Yes we’ve arrested both of them. The court has denied them bail. In 2019 the police had filed a case of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and inducing delivery of property,” Suresh, DSP, Economic Offences Wing, told NDTV confirming the event .

There is hope that this might pave way for a few quite recovery.

Sridevi Ramakrishnan, during an emergency in 2016, had pledged her 312 gram gold for a 5.4 lakh loan under KFJ’s Gold Loan Scheme.

Though she repaid the loan, she managed to urge back only 15 grams of gold. “They promised to settle it with the sale proceeds of their property but nothing happened”, said Ms Ramakrishnan. The schemes were endorsed by actor Praksh Raj and actor-director Lakshmi Ramakrishnan.

Jiji Mathew, an IT professional, had deposited a complete of ₹ 5.7 lakh since 2017, paying ₹ 25,000 a month under a scheme that might block gold at rock bottom price. “I was hopeful the gold saving chit scheme would help in my daughter’s education . But they shut shop in 2019 and our plans crashed,” he said.

“Arrest was long pending as they were just buying time within the name of negotiations. There are hundreds suffering in silence. a minimum of now authorities should freeze their properties and initiate recovery”.

S Lingasamy, a engineer who had filed the primary complaint, had joined a five-year scheme for purchasing 100 gram gold at ₹ 1,999 a gram had lost two lakh rupees then during this scheme alone. He had made another investment too. The appreciation in gold prices would, he thought, help in his children’s education.

“The mother of the brothers and wife of 1 of them too are KFJ directors. Why haven’t the police arrested them?” he asked.

The Cherian brothers, in an affidavit, blamed it on a false campaign by vested interests, which they claim triggered mass withdrawal of deposits and consequently led to the closure of their gold stores.

Though they sought bail to settle depositors by disposing their mortgaged properties, the court denied it citing possibility of ” tampering of evidence”.