The owner of a jewellery store was arrested on charge of cheating the public of Rs.16 crore with an instalment scheme for purchasing gold. Jithu Menon, 46, a native of Palakkad, was arrested from the city on Saturday morning.
Jithu is one of six directors of Artic Diamonds and Jewellers Pvt. Ltd., a company with several stores in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The company published brochures and took out advertisements attracting people to a scheme by which they could buy gold for the amount they invested after 10 years and also the company would return twice the sum of the original investment after the period, the company claimed. Central circle inspector Y. Nizamudheen said the company’s records showed that they had taken Rs.16 crore from about 2,500 people under the scheme.
People had been investing cash and gold with the company for three to four years, police said. The investors grew suspicious when they received no returns on the money and found the store’s shutters down a few weeks ago. When people approached the company’s representatives, they said that they too had not been paid for a month. A police complaint was registered and cases were registered at five police stations in the city. On Saturday morning, the accused was summoned to the Central police station for questioning. Some of those who had lost money also turned up at the station and police soon arrested the accused. “He said that he had used the money to set up new stores and could not repay it. We are investigating whether the money has been diverted for some other purpose,” said a police officer. Police are also on the lookout for the five other directorSs of the company for questioning.
