Alappuzha: A local court here has rejected the bail plea of four accused in the Popular Finance fraud case.

Thomas Daniel, his wife Prabha Thomas, children Dr Veenu Mariyam and Reeba Thomas had approached the court with bail pleas on the grounds that charge sheet has not been filed even 60 days after their arrest.

They are first to fourth accused in the case related to the duping of investors. Owing to COVID-19 precautions, the accused appeared in a video conference to put forth the arguments on their bail plea.

The prosecution argued that since case entailed the possibility of a punishment of more than 10 years for those found guilty, bail cannot be granted to the accused.

District assistant sessions court judge P N Seetha accepted the prosecution argument and rejected the bail plea of the accused.

The four accused had initially approached the High court with the bail plea but were directed to file the petition before the Alappuzha court.

The fifth accused Dr Riya had not applied for bail as her remand period was yet to get over. While the first accused is lodged in the Mavelikkara jail, the other accused are in Attakulangara jail in Thiruvananthapuram.

The police officers who appeared at the court for recording the arrest of the accused in connection with the cases registered in Palakkad South and North as well as Thrissur police stations were permitted for the same by the court.

The finance firm, with its headquarters at Konni in Pathanamthitta, had allegedly swindled depositors of around Rs 2,000 crore and hundreds of complaints were led at various stations in the state.

On Monday, several investors from Kottayam and Ernakulam had gathered in the court premises anticipating bail for the accused.

Additional public prosecutor P P Geetha and P P Baiju appeared for the prosecution.

Meanwhile another petition seeking anticipatory bail and stay on arrest in new complaints has been posted for hearing on November 5.