‘Economic offender’ held after deportation from Saudi Arabia

Accused floated a fraudulent scheme and cheated depositors, says CBI

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) logo at CBI headquarters in New Delhi. File

The CBI has arrested an alleged economic offender, Sudeer Muhammed Cheriya Vannarakkal, following his deportation from Riyadh.

The accused was arrested by the agency soon after his arrival in Delhi. He was produced before a court in Kerala and remanded to judicial custody till April 8. He was involved in five cases registered by the CBI on the directions of the Kerala High Court to take over the probe into the FIRs earlier lodged with the Kasargod police station.

The CBI had also got an Interpol Red Notice issued against Mr. Vannarakkal, who had allegedly been absconding. He was tracked down to Saudi Arabia and with the assistance of, and close coordination with, the authorities there via the Interpol, he was deported to India.

In four of the police cases, it was alleged that Mr. Vannarakkal and others floated a private company based in Kasargod, made false representations to the public at large, and assured them of phenomenal returns after 61 days of their investments. He also allegedly promised to pay a commission of 2% per month to the agents for mobilising investments for the company.

During the probe, the CBI found that in 2009-11, all the accused persons, including Mr. Vannarakkal, had entered into a conspiracy to float a fraudulent scheme called “Forex trade (trading with foreign currencies)”.

They promised a monthly return of 7% on principal to the depositors and 2% to the agents, collected over ₹9.93 crore and cheated the depositors by not repaying the assured returns and the principal amounts. After completing the investigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet before a trial court in Ernakulam. The accused were declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

“The fifth case was registered on the allegations that the accused induced the complainant to arrange about ₹50 lakh as deposit and promised to give monthly returns to the depositors. The complainant allegedly invested ₹19 lakh in 2011 in the company and the accused did not pay returns as well as the principal amount to the complainant,” said an agency official.