Madras High Court calls for report on investigation into Arudhra gold scam, other economic offences

The direction came following a petitioner from Tiruvannamalai district, who said he had found out, through the media, of a number of financial scams leading to depositors in the State losing money; he had sought a CBI probe into these cases

The Madras High Court on Friday called for a report on the status of the investigations, being conducted by the Economic Offences Wing and the Cyber Crime Cell of the Central Crime Branch in Chennai, into the complaints of cheating of depositors by Arudhra Gold Trading Private Limited and seven other firms.

Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy asked Advocate-General R. Shunmugasundaram to submit the report by March 24. The judges also directed the petitioner, Ramesh Lakshmipathy to establish his locus standi to file a public interest litigation petition seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

In his affidavit, the 38-year-old petitioner from Arunkunam village in Vandavasi taluk of Tiruvannamalai district claimed he was a project consultant and a social activist. He came to know, through the media, about a series of financial frauds having been committed in the State and hence, had filed the present petition.

Mr. Lakshmipathy said Hijau Associates Private Limited, founded by Soundararajan and his son Alexander Soundararajan, had collected several crores of rupees from gullible depositors since 2019, in the guise of doing a lubricant business in Dubai and Malaysia and fled the country in 2022, leaving the depositors high and dry.

Similar was the case with the promoters of LNS International Financial Services Limited and Marc Opportunity Development Limited. They, too, had collected crores of rupees from depositors since 2017 and absconded in 2022, the petitioner said. Further, Arudhra Gold Trading had cheated depositors to the tune of ₹8,000 crore, he claimed.

The cases against Sai Enterprises, Wohlstand Information Technologies and Amro Associates LLP were no different, the litigant said. He insisted that the culprits could be brought to book and the depositors’ money be recovered, only if the CBI undertook a thorough probe into all these economic offences.