PATHANAMTHITTA: Hundreds of depositors of Popular Finance on Tuesday shouted slogans against the firm’s managing director Thomas Daniel, wife and daughters when police brought them to the residence at Vakayar for collecting evidence in the cheating case involving over Rs 2,000 crore. The MD and three directors, who were sent to police custody by the court here on Monday, were at the receiving end and faced the ire of the depositors for hours and police had a tough time controlling the crowd.
The search operations, which began at 11 am, continued in the afternoon, police said.The police were on the look-out for the documents connected with the land deals of the proprietors in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.The cheating and other fraud operations of the company were part of long-term conspiracy hatched at least four to five years ago, police said.
The police collected evidence of multi-crore business in second-hand computers imported from Australia.
On search operation, DSP K G Simon said that a police team would be sent to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to collect details of the reported land deals.The status report on the investigation was submitted to the Kerala High Court as the court had sought details on a plea for CBI investigation into the cheating case by Popular Finance.
High Court seeks state’s view
Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday sought the response of the state government on the petitions seeking a directive to invoke the provisions, including the one relating to attachments of all properties of gold loan firm Popular Finance and its directors, under Kerala Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2013. Thomas Parekattil and six others submitted they had deposited more than Rs 1 crore in the financial company. The directors of the company had defrauded them by refusing interest on deposits and giving back their money. The state government was duty-bound to invoke the provisions of the Act against the directors of the financial institution, they said. The petitioners also sought directive to initiate action for recovery and return of deposit amounts. The court adjourned the case to September 14.