PATHANAMTHITTA: In one of the biggest-ever fraud cases of its kind, Popular Finance, the Konni-Vakayar-based non-banking finance firm, allegedly cheated depositors to the tune of around Rs 2,000 crore.
Following a nationwide alert sounded by KG Simon, district police chief, Rinu Maria Thomas and Riya Anna Thomas —daughters of the firm’s managing director and CEO Thomas Daniel — were apprehended at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi airport on Friday. Simon said a team led by Konni CI Rajesh was dispatched to New Delhi to bring them back and as per latest information, the arrested siblings will be flown back here on Saturday.
He said a special team led by Adoor DySP Binukumar is continuing searches at the Vakayar head office of the firm and bank accounts of the directors were frozen on the investigators’ request.The head office of the company was sealed on Friday on the orders of the Pathanamthitta sub-court following a petition filed by a depositor.
Additionally, in what is seen a clear setback to the depositors, Thomas, who had been on the run for the last couple of days, has filed an insolvency petition. The company, which had a total of 274 branches, including those in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, collected deposits ranging from Rs 1lakh to several crore rupees from about 1,500 depositors by offering high returns.
Investors got wind of the fraud on Thursday after the firm’s Vakayar office downed its shutters. A former executive of the company, who didn’t want to be named, said there was no transparency in the firm’s operations. When the company was having a chit fund, several hundred customers were denied timely payment even after maturity of the chit, he said. The company had been functioning without proper licence or clearance. However, the authorities failed to initiate follow-up action on complaints against the company, he said.