The Peramangalam police on Monday arrested a 57-year-old man for allegedly duping a man of `45 lakh in the name of foreign exchange trade. The arrested has been identified as M K Kuruvila, native of Uzhavoor in Kottayam and an industrialist settled in Bangalore. The man had earlier alleged that he was cheated of nearly `1 crore by the solar scam accused Biju Radhakrishnan and he had also raised allegations against the Chief Minister and his personnel staff for their links with the solar scam accused. According to the police, he was arrested from Bangalore based on a complaint filed by Bijeesh, a native of Mundoor in Thrissur. According to Peramangalam SI M J Augustin, Kuruvila had swindled `45 lakh from Bijeesh during several occasions in the pretext of returning it after doubling the amount through foreign exchange trade and commodity trading.
The fraud came to notice when Kuruvila failed to return the money on time. He avoided the telephone calls of the petitioner and dodged queries related to the amount. Following this, Bijeesh filed a petition with the Peramngalam police in April. The police said that several other cheating cases were also registered against him at various police stations in the state. Sunil, a native of Amballur in Thirssur, had filed a complaint with the Pudukkad police four days ago against Kuruvila for cheated him of `52.35 lakh in the same manner.
The Pudukkad police said they would seek his custody on Tuesday in the case filed by Sunil. The police also suspect that he had cheated many people crores of rupees in the same way. The police also said he has not been cooperating with the investigation and they suspect nine more people, all from North Indian states, are involved in the case.