COIMBATORE: Seven years after a trio was arrested for cheating 78 investors to the tune of Rs 1,67 crores through an emu farm here, the Special Court for Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishment) Act on Monday pronounced the conviction order. The three would be undergoing ten years of imprisonment and have been slapped a fine of Rs 56.25 lakh.
The convicts are J Padmanaban (40) from Pachapalayam near Sultanpet, S Jayakumar (39) from Kondampatti, and D Rajasekaran (38) from EB Colony in Vadavalli.
The trio started a firm in 2011 in the name of JPR Emu Agri Farms India Private Ltd in Kinathukadavu. While they were the directors of the firm, A Aravind alias Aravindkumar (43) was one of the employees of the company.
They offered two Ponzi schemes attracting 78 investors to park their funds to the tune of Rs 1,67,49,000 in the firm. However, the firm failed to fulfil its promises, forcing the investors seek the intervention of officials of the Economic Offences Wing Police (Coimbatore) in 2013.
A police case was registered and the three directors and the staff Aravind were booked and arrested under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) of IPC, and section 5 of TNPID Act. Later, the arrested persons were out of the prison under conditional bails.
The EOW police filed a charge sheet before the TNPID Court in 2014 and the case trial began in 2015. Special Public Prosecutor S Manickaraj appeared on behalf of the investors and requested the court to punish the directors. The TNPID Special Court Judge AS Ravi pronounced the judgment on Monday. The employee Aravind was acquitted from the case.
While Padmanaban and Rajasekar appeared before the court on Monday, the judge issued a warrant to arrest Jayakumar as he failed to appear for the hearing.
Manickaraj said Ponzi schemes are widespread in the western Tamil Nadu.