Highrich scam: Court extends custody of promoter, says no evidence to prove his innocence

Kochi: The Special Court in Kochi hearing cases registered under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA) denied bail to Kolatt Dasan Prathapan (43) on Tuesday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him on July 4, and the court sent him to judicial custody until July 19.

When his bail petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, July 23, the court extended his judicial custody till August 6, said ED's special public prosecutor M J Santhosh.

The court observed that prima facie the charges against the accused prevailed, and the defence did not produce any evidence to prove his innocence, said Adv Santhosh.

ED arrested Prathapan under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA, accusing him of money laundering. He and his wife Kattukaren Sreedharan Sreena alias Sreena Prathapan (35) are accused of illegally raising Rs 1673.10 crore from the public under the grab of online grocery business Highrich Online Shoppe Private Limited, cryptocurrency HR Coins, and OTT business Highrich OTT.

ED said in the remand report that all the businesses were illegal pyramid schemes, where the promoter couples and top leaders paid exorbitant returns to earlier depositors using the contributions of newer depositors, rather than from profit earned through their businesses.

According to the ED, the Highrich promoters paid their depositors Rs 1,422.16 crore of the Rs 1,673.10 crore raised, and the remaining Rs 250 crore was siphoned off. To date, ED has frozen bank accounts and attached properties amounting to Rs 260 crore.

ED had also told the court that even when Prathapan was being investigated, he started new pyramid schemes in Jharkhand to evade detection, and in 24 days, raised Rs 68.33 lakh