3 more money-chain swindlers caught

ALUVA: In a major breakthrough in the investigation into the Verison money chain fraud, the police nabbed three persons from Salem in Tamil Nadu in the wee hours of Monday.The arrested are Bijoy Sebastian, 45, of  Naduvilekoottu, Mallappally in Kottayam, Sandeep Jose, 45, residing at Infra Hillock, Changampuzha Nagar, Edappally, and Sunil Hendez, 28, residing at a rented house in Thaikkattukara here.The police are also searching for one more culprit connected to the case. According to the police, the accused were running a business in the name of Verison Builders and Encode Finances for the last three years with its headquarters at Aluva and having a wide network throughout the state.The accused used to accept deposits to the tune of Rs 6,000 (Rs 5,000 as membership fee and Rs 1,000 as share in the business) by offering attractive packages. The investors will get Rs 1,000 if they enroll other customers.In the preliminary investigation, police found that at least 25,000 people had been swindled to the tune of Rs 20 crore.A case has been registered against the accused under IPC 120 (Criminal Conspiracy), 420 (Cheating) and Money Circulation Banning Act 1978. Acting on the instruction of IG R Sreelekha and SP T Vikram, a police team led by Special Branch DySP A Anilkumar and Aluva ASP Rahul Nair raided the office of Verison Builders in Aluva on June 13.They seized several incriminating documents, which threw light on a large-scale money chain fraud. But the accused had gone underground.SP T Vikram then constituted a special team headed by Aluva CI K B Prafulla Chandran to nab the fraudsters. The team traced the mobile calls and got the clue that the accused were in Coimbatore.Binanipuram SI Manoj accompanied by policemen Prasannakumar and Hari rushed to Coimbatore in a car.They found the accused had escaped from Coimbatore to Salem, where they found a Maruti Swift bearing a  Kerala registration number plate parked near a hotel.The police found the accused inside the car around 1 am on Monday.The accused, who were brought to Aluva, were remanded in judicial custody by the Judicial First Class Magistrate here.

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