PATHANAMTHITTA: Popular Finance managing director Thomas Daniel and wife and managing partner Prabha Thomas were arrested on Saturday from a lodge at Idinjillam on the Pathanamthitta-Kottayam border. They were arrested at 2pm and brought to the district police headquarters where a team led by Pathanamthitta District Police Chief K G Simon interrogated them. Their daughters, Rinu Mariam Thomas and Riya Ann Thomas, were arrested from the Delhi airport based on a lookout notice issued by the state police in connection with the fraud.
Popular Finance fraud: State to seek Interpol assistance
They were brought to the Pathanamthitta SP’s office at 8.15pm by a special team of the Kerala Police. The preliminary questioning of Thomas revealed that the malpractices in the finance company and the duping of depositors were part of a conspiracy hatched long ago. The records with the company were improper while the receipts issued to depositors were not original and were under different letter heads.
Sources said the company was functioning with neither a valid licence nor an official clearance for the past few months. The daughters will be sent under quarantine for 14 days as they were brought from Delhi, sources said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state police will seek Interpol help as some financial transactions were suspected to have been made abroad. The state government formed a 25-member special investigation team headed by Simon to investigate the Popular Finance fraud. South Zone IG Harshitha Attalluri will supervise the probe, the CM said.