CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday arrested a couple Directors at 'APM Agro', a subsidiary firm of Hijau Associates Private Limited, which had allegedly cheated the public.
The arrested couple Prija (46) and her husband, Madhusudhan (53) of Villivakkam were committee members at Hijau and had cheated the public of at least Rs 90 crores, said the police.
The couple had collected money from over 2500 people.
After the EOW started focusing its investigation on Hijau, 20 persons were arrested. Efforts are on to secure the managing director of Hijau-Alexander with the help of Interpol.
Prija and Madhusudhan have been absconding for over a year and they were arrested by a team headed by Superintendent of Police Josh Thangaiah and Addl SP Karthik, who tracked down the absconding couple to Kerala.
They were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.
Hijau associates have cheated more than 14,000 people. EOW had already issued a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Alexander and Mahalakshmi, managing directors of Hijau Associates, who are suspected to have fled to a foreign country.
According to the Police, Hijau Associates was headquartered in Chennai and had sent their executives across the state to lure investors by conducting meetings in luxury hotels in their district.
The investors were told that they would get a 15 per cent return on their investment every month, but in actuality, they were running a Ponzi scheme.
Police have also freezed 162 bank accounts of those associated with Hijau, containing Rs 14.47 crore.