KASARGOD: After 96 days in prison, Manjeshwar MLA and IUML leader MC Kamaruddin got bail in all the 148 cases of cheating registered against him in connection with the Fashion Gold deposit scam. On Wednesday, Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate Court (I) granted him bail in six cases. With this, he would be able to get out of Kannur Central Prison, where he has been lodged for the past three months. IUML leaders said he would be released from the prison on Thursday.
The special investigation team — which was probing the Fashion Gold deposit scam -- had registered 155 cases based on complaints filed by depositors. Of the 155 cases, Kamaruddin was remanded in judicial custody in 148 cases. As the charges were criminal in nature, he had to get bail in each of the 148 cases to come out of the prison.
Ninety-one cases were before Hosdurg court, 28 cases were before Kasaragod JFCM Court, 27 cases were before Payyannur JFCM Court and one case each was before Kannur and Thalassery courts. The Kerala High Court had granted him bail in three cases.
According to the bail conditions, Kamaruddin cannot enter the jurisdiction of police stations where cases were registered against him. The MLA would not be able to go to his home at Trikaripur as several cases were registered in Chandera police station. He, however, can go to Manjeshwar constituency by avoiding Payyannur, Kanhangad, Bekal and Kasaragod police station limits.
The probe into the Fashion Gold deposit scam has floundered after the special investigation team’s chief assistant superintendent of police Vivek Kumar got a promotion and joined the Indian Reserve Battalion in January. Kamaruddin was arrested on November 7. But the SIT did not file the chargesheet even in the first of the 148 cases.
An officer in the SIT said Vivek Kumar was still heading the investigation.
Apart from Kamaruddin, there are three more accused in the case-- Sunni leader T K Pookoya Thangal, who was the managing director of Fashion Gold, his son and director A P Hisham, and nephew and general manager Zainul Abid.
Of the three, Abid was arrested and was released on bail. However, Pookoya Thangal and Hisham reportedly went into hiding the day Kamaruddin was arrested. The officer quoted above said the chargesheet was not filed because the co-accused were not yet arrested. Vivek Kumar had said they would be arrested after the local body election in December. But the police still do not have a clue about them.
The ASP had said Thangal was the main accused in the case. Recently, Pookoya Thangal’s mother died but he did not turn up for the funeral. According to the police, three jewellery companies of Kamaruddin and Thangal illegally raised money from the public at exorbitant interest rates. But the business started collapsing between October and December 2019 and they were not able to return the money to the public.