THRISSUR: With K P Praveen aka Praveen Rana, chairman and MD of Safe and Strong Marketing Consultancy based in Thrissur, landing in police net, investors are keeping their fingers crossed as to the fate of their huge investments. Many had borrowed money and availed loans to invest in the ponzi scheme run by the fly-by-night operator.
According to Safe and Strong Depositors’ Welfare Action Council, initial complaints regarding the financial fraud in Rana’s firm were lodged about one-and-a-half years ago. But the police didn’t act as Praveen ensured that the complainants got the returns every month.
An investor from Palakkad said, “I invested Rs 8 lakh in December 2020. Rana promised me high rate of interest. I received the promised return of Rs 24,000 till April 2021. Then it was reduced to Rs 20,000 and for about eight months, I received the amount. Then we made a bond for the rest of the money and fixed an attractive interest for it. But I never received it and the payment permanently which forced me to lodge a complaint.”
When more people lodged complaints, Praveen convened a customers’ meeting on August 20, 2022, and promised to return the arrears. He also promised to pay the full amount by December 2022 to those who wanted it.
But in an investors’ meeting on December 27, he expressed his inability to do so. On December 29, he posted a voice note on the WhatsApp group saying he had resigned as the firm’s MD. “Until Covid crisis, most investors received returns, but there were defaults in between,” said another investor who invested Rs 1 lakh in 2019 and Rs 10 lakh in 2020. A former staffer revealed that a majority of the company staff received their salary every month except in the past three months.
GRAND WEDDING WITH 1KG GOLD, DIAMONDS
For his wedding to Mumbai native Vayana in January last year, Rana bought about 1kg of gold and diamonds from a jewellery shop in Thrissur. After the wedding, he organised a grand party for the shop’s staff. His wedding held at a prominent hotel was attended by important personalities from film, media, politics and business.