VELLORE: A 28-year-old agent of the LNS International Financial Services, a Vellore-based private firm which is involved in a multi-crore fraud case, allegedly died by suicide at his home at Sevoor near Katpadi in Vellore. Police have found a suicide note purportedly written by the deceased, identified as V Vinoth Kumar. “I apologise to everyone who trusted me and invested their money in the firm. And I hope that my end will bring their money back,” it read.
On August 5, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Chennai had conducted a Statewide search on 21 premises belonging to the firm in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Ranipet, and Coimbatore. The EOW sleuths carried out the searches based on a direction from the Madras HC that recently received a petition from an investor.
It found that the firm had collected crores of money as deposits from the public promising a return of 6% to 10% as monthly interest. But, it failed to pay them the interest as well as the principal amount, a press note stated. “During the search, the sleuths seized cash worth `1.05 crore, 40 sovereigns of gold, a car, hard disks of 13 computers, five laptops, 14 mobile phones, a tab, and 220 documents,” it noted.
Three siblings — S Janarthanan, S Lakshmi Narayanan, and S Vedhanarayanan — and their cousin Mohan Babu, who run the business, are on the run, the police said. Meanwhile, agent Vinoth Kumar, in his suicide note, said he deposited money from investors who approached him and requested the investigating officers to return the money to the investors. Thiruvalam police registered a case under section 306 of the IPC. Further probe is on. The district police advised the investors in the firm not to take any extreme steps.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on TN’s health helpline 104)
EOW advisory
The EOW, in the press release, stated the petitioners may contact eowInsifscase@gmail.com to lodge their complaints. Citizens are advised to save/deposit their money only in approved financial institutions which were updated on the RBI website