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Goodwin Jewellers: Accused fled to Kerala, UK, came to city via Nepal
A day after the owners of Goodwin Jewellers and accused in the ₹25-crore fraud case, Sunilkumar Mohanan Akkarakaran and Sudheerkumar Mohanan Akkarakaran, were arrested
A day after the owners of Goodwin Jewellers and accused in the ₹25-crore fraud case, Sunilkumar Mohanan Akkarakaran and Sudheerkumar Mohanan Akkarakaran, were arrested by Thane Police’s economic offences wing (EOW), the police on Saturday revealed that the duo had fled to Kerala after shutting the 12 stores owned by them.
The duo then went to the United Kingdom but came back to Mumbai via Nepal, said police.
The Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) court in Thane remanded them in police custody till December 24. “We will further interrogate the two accused to know if they have invested money abroad,” said Suresh Jadhav, senior police inspector, EOW, Thane.
Ranjan Salunke, the counsel for the brothers, said, “My clients are willing to cooperate in the investigation.”
Both the brothers have been charged under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the MPID Act.
As per the police, Sunilkumar, the elder among the two brother, came to Mumbai 25 years ago and began working at jewellery stores. Some years later, Sudheerkumar joined him. With the help of their uncle who runs gold business in Kerala, the duo opened a jewellery store at Dombivli in 2005.
Their business began to flourish, as they introduced lucrative schemes for investors, attracting several people to invest their money in Goodwin’s monthly and yearly schemes in return for a 14-18% interest rate.
During interrogation, the brothers told the police that as their business started slowing down early this year, they sold their land to pay the investors. However, they did not get a good deal for the land. They then sold some gold jewellery from their stores and returned the money of some of their investors. “When they fled the country, they had carried a mere 1-gram gold and some American diamonds from their stores. They told us that they did not have any gold jewellery,” said an EOW officer who did not wished to be named.
A police team is visiting Kerala to question the duo’s family members.
Thane police have received 1,154 complaints from investors. Nine cases of cheating and fraud have been registered against the accused and the losses are estimated to be worth ₹25 crore.
