Kochi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Saturday, August 31, filed the first chargesheet in the Highrich scam, naming 37 persons and entities as accused, including its promoter couple Kolatt Dasan Prathapan (43) and Kattukaren Sreedharan Sreena alias Sreena Prathapan (35).
ED submitted 11,500 pages of chargesheets and soft copies on five pen drives to the Special Court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act in Kochi.
The central agency estimated that the couple raised Rs 1,651.65 crore from the public under the garb of grocery business Highrich Online Shopee, cryptocurrency business HR Crypto, and online movie streaming business, HR OTT, said ED's special public prosecutor MJ Santhosh. "Money was collected under the pretext of investment in each of these projects and diverted for other purposes," he said.
He said the list of accused included top promoters, known as 'leaders', who gained from the Ponzi scheme. He identified them as Reetha, Riyas, Sindhu Prakash, Dileep Shaju, Anil Kumar TP, Suresh Babu, Dinuraj, Fijish Kumar, Ambily Abraham, Gangadharan P, Sameer VA, Jinil TJ, Kanakaraj TM, Basheer M, Lakshmanan P, Shameena, Munaver, and Prashanth P Nair.
During the investigation, ED attached movable and immovable assets valued at Rs 33.7 crore of Highrich companies, Prathapan, Sreena and its top 15 promoters. ED also froze their bank accounts with Rs 244.03 crore. "In all, ED has attached assets worth Rs 277 crore," said Adv Santhosh.
He said victims of the Highrich scam may approach the court to get back their money from the attached assets. "The court may consider the victims' applications after framing of charges against the accused," he said. The investigation against other promoters who helped raise money from the public would continue, said the special public prosecutor.
According to the sources in the ED, Kerala Police investigating the Highrich scam registered 28 FIRs against the accused, but did not move any application to record the arrest of the promoters.
Most of the cases were registered by the Cherpu Police under the Thrissur Rural Police under the Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act and the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act.
In a submission in the Assembly, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Highrich promoters raised Rs 3,141.34 crore from the public. Kerala Police later transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as the promoters were raising money from various states.
