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Thane: Goodwin Jewellers’ second store searched
The Thane economic offences wing (EOW), which is investigating the Goodwin Jewellers’ case, on Saturday opened the sealed store at Talao Pali Road to conduct a search
The Thane economic offences wing (EOW), which is investigating the Goodwin Jewellers’ case, on Saturday opened the sealed store at Talao Pali Road to conduct a search operation. The operations continued till late night, and apart from a laptop and hard disk, no valuables were recovered.
“We did not find anything at the Thane store. All their bank accounts have been frozen, and we are studying their financial activities,” said SN Patil, assistant commissioner of police, EOW, Thane. The development comes a day after the EOW searched the Dombivli store.
On October 22, the Goodwin owners shut down 12 stores in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Dombivli, Ambernath and Pune, stating that stock-clearing work would take place for two days. However, after the stores did not open four days later, panicked investors approached the police and started protesting outside the stores.
The EOW then sealed all the stores and booked founders Sunil Kumar and Sudheesh Kumar under the Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1999. On Wednesday, the agency had sealed the Kumar brothers’ two flats at Palava City and seized a high-end car. So far, the agency has registered 397 complaints by investors in Thane and Navi Mumbai, claiming a loss of ₹14.50 crore.
Anil Mangle, senior police inspector, Naupada police station, said, “Our team was deployed outside the store when the search was being carried out [on Saturday]. We are registering the complaints and forwarding them to the EOW.” So far, the Naupada police has received around 210 complaints from investors claiming a loss of ₹3.10 crore.
Meanwhile, two teams of EOW officers have been sent to Kerala, where the brothers also had outlets. In a video released by the accused on Monday, they claimed that their family was vacationing in Kerala.
The EOW officers had also recently called in staffers for questioning. According to the police, the staffers said they had been asked to clear the stock as new items would be put up for sale during Diwali.
When HT spoke to Sunil Kumar earlier this week, he said he has assets worth more than ₹200 crore in Kerala and would sell the properties to return money to investors. He also claimed he plans to fight the case without surrendering and start the business again in 45 days.
