Kerala Police to Send ED Report on Kochi Immigration Firm Fraud Cases
Palarivattom police will report three fraud cases against Amster Overseas and its CEO to the ED, suspecting a wider money-laundering angle.
The Palarivattom police, probing a string of complaints against a Kochi-based immigration services company, will send a report to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) requesting a deeper look into the money transactions tied to the cases.
The report will cover the three cases registered against Parvathy Maya Shaji, founder and CEO of Amster Overseas, and others. A city police officer said the ED would be informed because the accused received payments in bank accounts abroad for services that were promised or delivered in India.
Though only three people have come forward to seek FIRs against the firm, investigators suspect the scale of the financial fraud could be much larger. The officer said it would be for the ED to examine the transactions and determine whether they fall under money-laundering offences.
Police sources said the firm is understood to have returned money to around 100 people after the arrest of Ms. Shaji, a Kottayam native who is now in judicial custody.
The earlier cases rest on allegations that the company cheated three complainants — from Ernakulam, Thrissur and Malappuram districts — of lakhs of rupees after promising jobs in Poland and Armenia.
Ms. Shaji was arrested by the Palarivattom police on September 24 after being detained on her arrival from abroad in Thiruvananthapuram. The police said they have yet to record her arrest in the third case, which is based on a complaint from a youth in Ponnani, Malappuram.