CHENNAI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) CID has arrested two more key accused in connection with the Ponzi scheme by Hijau Associates, a financial firm which collected deposits totalling Rs 4,400 crore from nearly 89,000 depositors and duped them. The accused were identified as Kalaiselvi, one of the directors, and her husband Ravichandran who was a managing director.
EOW registered a case against Hijau Associates Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, its directors and some others on November 15, 2022. It was found that the firm had collected deposits from the public with a false promise of giving 15% monthly interest. But the company failed to repay the monthly interest and the principal amount, said the police.
“Ravichandran was running Hijau’s sister company RMK Bros, where he collected `300 crore and took a commission of `1 crore,” said a police officer.
The FIR names a total of 31 accused. EOW has already arrested 10 people - Soundarajan, Nehru, Selvam, Suresh, Chandrasekaran, Gurumanikandan, Mohammed Sherif, Shanthi Balamurugan, Kalyani, Bharathi Ravichandran and Sujatha Balaji. Among them, Nehru, 49, was arrested on November 21, but he killed himself in February when he was released on bail.
The police said about 13,000 depositors had lodged complaints against Hijau and its sister concerns.