The Crime Branch has arrested the Managing Director of a Mumbai-based healthcare company that was involved in cheating investors after securing ₹150 crore.
K.O. Raphael, the suspect, was nabbed from Tamil Nadu after a four-year long investigation into the incident. He had reportedly went into hiding in 2019.
The promise of the company to the investors was to double returns in nine years. The company, Phenomenal Healthcare Malayalee Private Limited, had received private investments between 2009 and 2018. It was closed down in 2018 without giving any returns to the investors.
Though a Nepal native who worked as chairman of the company was earlier arrested from Mumbai, Koratty native Raphael was at large. He was reportedly living undercover in States such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with the support of his distant relatives.
Crime Branch sources said the 62-year-old used the private investments for purchasing land under his name in various States. “Procedures will be initiated to forfeit his property and recover the loss of the investors as part of the legal proceedings,” they said.
There were about 144 cases against him by the investors from various parts of Kerala and neighbouring States. The number of complainants alone was about 400. The case that was investigated by the local police for three months was handed over to the Crime Branch in 2019.
The total number of accused in the case was 18 and the majority of them were directors of the company that had a regional office at Chalakkudi. According to the police, 10 of them had been arrested. Eight more suspected directors are still at large. Five of the previously arrested have jumped bail to evade trial.
