Tamil Nadu: Custody sought for two accused involved in multi-crore scam

Madurai: The anticipatory bail petition filed by two of the accused involved in the multi-crore ‘Parivar Dairies and PDA Foundation scam’, in which thousands of depositors were taken for a ride with false promises of high returns, were opposed by the two depositors.

When the case was heard by Justice A.M. Basheer Ahamed of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court recently, the inspector of Police, Economic Offences Wing -II, Madurai, also opposed anticipatory bail on the ground that they were the most wanted persons for custodial interrogation in this case.

The depositors M. Panneerselvam and M. Arumugam from Virudhunagar in their petition for intervention filed in the court said that R. Deivam and S. Raja who worked in managerial positions in ‘Parivar Dairies and Allied Limited’ (which has its head office at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh) had allegedly cheated people across Tamil Nadu to the tune of rupees 1,000 crore for nine years since 2007.

They lured people by delusive schemes of minimum investment and high returns on the completion of six years. Their counsel T. Lajapathi Roy informed the judge that anticipatory bail petitions by the accused during 2015 was already dismissed by this court. Another petition seeking to transfer the investigation from the Economic Offences Wing police to CBI was also pending before this court, said the counsel.

“There is a possibility of their tampering with witnesses and destroying evidence if the court grants them bail at this juncture,” said Roy.

The counter affidavit filed by inspector N. Muthumari stated that Deivam had also misappropriated around Rs 30 crore and the entire deposit amount allegedly used for his personal benefit, besides the duo had cheated around 1,16,000 depositors of around Rs 200 crore in and around Madurai. After recording the submissions, the judge reserved his order.