A plot that rivals the best of con movies

Fake documents and antiques, premium vehicles used to convince creditors

A petition to the Chief Minister jointly submitted by six persons on how they were taken for a ride by Monson Mavunkal, the self-styled antique collector and amateur archaeologist who was arrested by the Crime Branch on Sunday, reads like the script of a brilliantly plotted con movie.

That the accused managed to cheat the victims of ₹10 crore seems beside the point while considering his ingenuity and audacity of plotting the con and sustaining it for nearly four years.

The forged documents from the finance ministry and banks purportedly showing that his ₹2.62 crore, proceeds from the sale of antiques abroad, remains frozen since 2010 as per the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) were the pivot around which he weaved such an incongruous story that it defies logic that people had actually fallen for it.