CHENNAI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) submitted a preliminary charge sheet against actor-producer RK Suresh, one of the accused in the Rs 2,400-crore Aarudhra gold trading scam. The EOW, last month, had frozen the bank account of Suresh, who is currently the vice president of BJP state OBC wing.
On April 11, EOW conducted an inquiry based on the statement of Harish, one of the accused in the scam. Harish had claimed that he had given money to certain BJP functionaries. The EOW in the charge sheet has mentioned that Suresh had Rs 15 crore in his bank account which is supposedly the investor’s money.
On April 22, the Madras High Court refused to stay the summons issued by the EOW to RK Suresh. The court also asked the police to respond to his petition seeking a direction to quash the summons.
Aarudhra Gold Trading Private Limited defrauded the public to the tune of Rs 2,438 crore by collecting funds from over 1 lakh depositors between September 2020 and May 2022. People deposited money as they were promised exorbitant interest rates. However, the company walked back on its promise, according to police.
The EOW registered a case under several sections of IPC, including 420 (cheating and sections of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act and sections of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (TNPID) Act.