CHENNAI: A police constable and seven of his family members were arrested by the Kancheepuram police for running a Ponzi scheme and cheating several people, including a few police personnel, of at least Rs 25 crore. The man claimed to provide huge returns on investments for the past two years.
The accused were identified as J Arockia Arun, a traffic police constable from Enathur Pudu Nagar in Kancheepuram, his wife A Mahalakshmi, father S Joseph, mother J Mariaselvi, brothers Irudhayaraj and Sahaya Bharath and their wives Jeyashri and Sowmiya respectively. Police said Sahaya Bharath works as a ministerial staff in the DSP’s office in the district. Irudhayaraj was an Armed Reserve constable and now works as a lab technician in the district education office.
“Arockia Arun started the scam in 2021. He claimed that for every Rs 1 lakh he will give a return of Rs 1.3 lakh after investing in bitcoins, startups and money exchanges. Initially, he provided the promised money. However, since October 2022, Arun has not sent money to his investors,” said Inspector Vetriselvan, District Crime Branch.
The inspector said that Arun had also got money from several police personnel who were close to him. Based on a complaint from police personnel and others, the Kancheepuram Cyber Crime police registered a case under sections IPC 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) and froze the accounts belonging to Arockia and his family.
After preliminary investigations, police said Arockia was also using the bank accounts of his family members. “Arun’s sister-in-laws started businesses with the money. They bought houses and lived extravagant lifestyles. His brothers and parents too knew about the investment and bought in more investors,” said a senior police officer.
Police said they have bank statements and records for investments up to `25 crore. “After a detailed investigation will we know how much the accused actually cheated investors,” said the police officer. Arockia, Mahalakshmi and Joseph fled the district months ago and were traced to a village in southern Tamil Nadu. They were arrested and brought to Kancheepuram for inquiry.