Kerala to seek Interpol help in finance firm case

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 29 Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said that the state will now seek Interpol's help to track down the international links suspected in the Popular Finance fraud case.

Headquartered in Pathanamthitta district, the firm has been in the business of gold loans and taking deposits from people since 1965. The company has 247 branches in the state.

It has now come to light that Rs 2,000 crore of depositors money has been alleged to have been misappropriated by the management.

"A special team led by Pathanamthitta SP of Police K.G. Simon is on the job. Since there seems to be an international connection in this, the help of Interpol will be sought for the probe. The managing partner Thomas Daniel Roy and his wife Prabha have been taken into custody by the police on Saturday, while two other partners who were trying to fly out of the country have been taken into custody in Delhi and have been brought to Pathanamthitta," said Vijayan.

However, soon after the fraud surfaced in the media, the management said that this is a temporary phase of business getting affected due to Covid and they will honour all their commitments and for that they need time of about nine months.

( With inputs from IANS )