A combative Manjeshwaram MLA M C Kamaruddin, who is now out on bail after three months in prison, has asked why the Kerala Police was unable to nab the first accused in the Fashion Gold Jewellery investment scam, T K Pookoya Thangal, the managing director of Fashion Gold.
"Am I the only person involved," Kamaruddin asked reporters in Manjeshwaram on Friday. "I was the chairman of the firm in name only. There were many salaried people working for the firm. No one is in the picture now. The only ones who are suffering are myself, my family and my co-workers," he said.
About Pookkoyas Thangal, he said: "When my arrest was declared, he left." Kamaruddin said the general talk was that Thangal had been kept in hiding.
"Is it such a big problem for Kerala Police to nab a person? If they want to, won't they? Or is Pinarayi's police such a weak force? What is this government for if they can't nab a person," he said.
Kamaruddin said he had asked a senior police official who had come to arrest him the names of the people they would take into custody along with him. "He told me 'They want you only'. I will tell this everywhere," the Manjeshwaram MLA said.
He said the LDF government was interested in framing only him in the case. He said there was a conspiracy to trap him. "Even those people who had told news channels that they had given the money to me at my house have now said they had done it to trap me at the instigation of certain people," Kamaruddin said.
He, however, refused to reveal the names of those he thought had worked against him. "Now I am not going into any such issues. My concern at the moment is to fill the three-year gap during which I was away from my constituency," Kamaruddin said.
He said there was no fraud involved either. "It was just that a business went bust and some people have to be given their money back. These people would naturally be concerned and would look for ways to get back their money. That is but a civil case. Motivated by political gain, they (the LDF government) have converted this into a criminal case," Kamaruddin said.
He said he was always with the investors. "I did not even move for anticipatory bail and thought it was fine even if they had arrested me. Me and my party were doing all we can to help the investors. It was when the discussions were on and assets were about to be sold off that I was arrested. We lost three months," he said.
Kamaruddin has secured bail in the 155 cases registered against him in the Fashion Gold case. The IUML legislator was arrested on Nov 7 last year on the basis of complaints by depositors who invested money in Fashion Gold International of which he was the chairman.
The court, while granting bail, barred Kamaruddin from entering the police station limits in which cases were registered against him. Consequently, he would not be able to enter the limits of Chandera, Bekal and Kasaragod police stations in Kasaragod and also Kannur and Payyannur police station limits. However, he has no cases in his assembly constituency.
Kamaruddin was booked under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating), provisions of Kerala Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act and section 3 and 5 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act.