137 investors approach EOW against jeweller

Court sends owner of VGN Jeweller to jail custody

In the ponzi scheme racket wherein a jeweller who had a finance firm in Kalyan and jewellery stores in Dombivli, Ulhasnagar and Mulund was arrested on Tuesday, 137 other investors have approached the Economic Offence Wing of Thane crime branch to register complaints against the owner of VGN Jeweller.

With the addition of these investors the total amount of the racket has gone up to more than Rs 10 crore. The police said that the lockdown and Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in breaking the chain of the scheme, as there were no new investors to rotate the cash flow.

According to the Thane crime branch officials, the arrested accused has been identified as Virithgopalan Nair, 76, who was arrested on October 5. “He was in police custody till October 9.

After producing him in court on Saturday, the court ordered him to jail custody,” said Sunil Lokhande, deputy commissioner of police, EOW, Thane police.

The police said Nair and his wife Valsala had a finance firm in Kalyan and jewellery stores in Dombivli, Ulhasnagar and Mulund. The owner of VGN jeweller had cheated many investors during the period 2006 to 2021. “Nair used to lure investors by asking them to invest Rs 500 per month. If a person paid Rs 500 for 24 months, Nair used to return them Rs 14,000 or gold ornaments. Similarly, in another scheme he used to ask investors to go for a fixed deposit for 5 years. For the fixed deposit he used to give a return of 15 percent, which was much higher than the bank rate,” said a police officer from the EOW.