COIMBATORE: Setting the stage for the prosecution of the key accused in the multi-crore Paazee scam, the CBI on Thursday filed a voluminous chargesheet, running into nearly 14,000 pages, against the company’s three jailed directors.
The scam that originated in Tirupur in 2009 is the largest ever economic crime to have hit western Tamil Nadu.
Recently, the former Western Zone Inspector General of Police Pramod Kumar was arrested for allegedly trying to hush up investigations in the case during the initial stages. The chargesheet contains statements of as many as 1,434 prosecution witnesses — a majority of whom are depositors.
The Paazee Financial Institutions, which primarily dealt with Forex trade, had cheated around 43,000 investors across the country by promising them high returns. “In the chargesheet, the directors of the company K Kathiravan (formerly a journalist with a Tamil daily in Tirupur), his son K Mohan Raj and a Chennai-based woman Kamalavalli are listed as accused in the case. For practical reasons, the case against IGP Pramod Kumar would be treated as a separate case,” a source in CBI said. However, the agency did not rule out filing of supplementary chargesheets against other accused who served as intermediaries in luring investors.