THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch has received the details of the deposits and chit funds to the tune of Rs 170 crore and about 90 land transactions by the promoters of Nirmal Krishana Nidhi Limited, mainly K. Nirmalan alias Nirmal Krishnan.
The preliminary assessment of the Crime Branch is that the firm had duped the investors as it was found to be indulging in benami land transactions for more than a year. The firm was also collecting deposits without Reserve Bank of India’s mandatory permission.
The Crime Branch is likely to give a preliminary report to state police chief Loknath Behera on Thursday. The state police is unlikely to register a case as the firm is located at Palukal which is in Tamil Nadu’s limits. But since about 90 percent of the investors who lost money were from Kerala, the state police may explore legal options of recovering their money by seizing the benami assets by liaising with Tamil Nadu police.
According to sources, the firm used to give monthly interest of Rs 1,500 for Rs 1 lakh. It started defaulting interest payments from November 2016. Though a whisper campaign was launched that it was hit by demonetisation, the promoters were found to be involving in land dealings much earlier with the idea of winding up the firm by defrauding the investors. The Crime Branch got details of about 85 land transactions in Neyyatinkara taluk over the last one year.
Meanwhile, hundreds of investors of the firm blocked the national highway at Parassala on Wednesday morning. They alleged that neither Tamil Nadu nor Kerala police was making any initiatives to nab the prime accused Nirmal Krishnan.
State police sources said that no proactive steps to nab Nirmal Krishna were taken as no case was registered against him here. The Tamil Nadu police had also not yet sought the state police help to nab him. He used to stay at one of his houses at Jagathy here.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala urged the government to initiate a CBI probe into the scam. In a letter to Chief Minister Pinaryi Vijayan, Mr. Chennithala said that since the scam was spread over two states, a probe by a central agency would be ideal.
