The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) CID has arrested a director, of the now defunct Aarudhra Gold Trading Private limited, a non-banking finance firm based in Chennai, for cheating thousands of depositors allegedly to the tune of ₹2,400 crore.
The arrested man was identified as S. Michaelraj, 31 of Virudhunagar who was working as an administrative director in the firm, and monitoring transactions made online, and managing the company accounts. He had been in hiding for the last 10 months, police said. On Tuesday, he was arrested at the Chennai International Airport after he landed from Dubai. The EOW officers on Monday conducted a raid at his house in Virudhunagar, and seized incriminating documents.
Last week, the EOW had arrested two directors including K. Harish, a former BJP functionary.
Police said from September 2020 to May 2022, Aarudhra Gold Trading Private Limited, functioning from Aminjikarai collected deposits to the tune of ₹2,400 crore from over one lakh investors by offering to give them interest rates of 25 to 30% for a month. Not only did they fail to deliver on the promised returns, they also did not return the principal amounts to the depositors.
