KASARGOD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken up the case on Manjeshwar MLA MC Kamaruddin, facing charges of cheating from depositors in his gold business. The ED is investigating whether Kamaruddin’s gold companies were a front for money laundering, said an official in the Kozhikode sub-zonal office.“The investigation is in a budding stage and we cannot reveal much,” he said. In another development, the IUML’s district treasurer Kallatra Mahin has submitted a report on the status of the companies run by Kamaruddin and his assets to the party leadership. His findings would be discouraging for investors.
According to sources, Mahin in his report said Kamaruddin’s firms did not have the assets to return the money he owed to his depositors. The MLA may have to borrow from his well-wishers, a source said. The party leadership has, however, denied the existence of the report.Mahin said he WhatsApped the report to IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty and state general secretary K P A Majeed on September 30, the deadline given by the party to submit the status report.
However, when TNIE contacted Majeed, he said there neither was such a report nor was it needed. “The party told Kamaruddin to return the money to depositors within six months. There is no need for a report,” Majeed said.On September 17, the party leadership held a meeting with Kamaruddin and asked him to return the money. It had also assigned Mahin to monitor the process and submit a report on the status of the companies’ assets and Kamaruddin’s family assets by September 30.
Majeed said Mahin was admitted to a hospital with Covid and he could not send the report. Mahin then WhatsApped the report.Kamaruddin is the chairman of Fashion Ornaments Private Limited, Kamar Gold Private Limited, New Fashion Gold International Private Limited, Nujoom Gold Private Limited and Fashion Reactors Private Limited. The companies were selling gold ornaments under the brand name Fashion Gold but folded up at the end of 2019.
In a complaint to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP district president K Shreekanth said the companies collected around Rs 150 crore illegally from 900 persons and used to pay around Rs 22 crore in dividends to the depositors every year.“But nothing has been shown in the annual returns,” said Shreekanth in his letter to the finance minister. He said Kamaruddin’s private companies had not filed returns after 2017-2018. Around 66 depositors have pressed charges of cheating against the MLA.