CHENNAI: Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths have arrested seven including three women executives of a company for allegedly cheating the public of Rs 3.89 crores by luring them into investment plans.

The complainant Rajagopal has filed a complaint that he was approached by the Executive Directors of the Swarnatara Group of Companies in 2015 and claimed that he was told that their company got proper permission from the Reserve Bank of India to receive investmentfrom customers and that they will invest the money in various projects of their group companies, dealing in gold and derivative trading in the UK and Australia. The accused reportedly told the customers that they would get 100% profit every year for three years if they invested Rs 1 lakh and they would get the full amount after three years.

Initially, the complainant invested Rs 3 lakh and got Rs 3 lakh from 2015 to 2018. After this, the complainant’s relatives and family members, about 61 of them, invested Rs 2.40 crore in the accused company. Another group of 25 persons had invested Rs 1.45 crore. Unlike the previous occasions, neither the profit nor the invested amount was returned, said the complainant. Based on his complaint a case was registered by the CCB. On Wednesday, police arrested the Chairman, Venkatranga Gupta (58) of Nolambur and the Directors of the company, DK Hariharan (58), Vijaysri Gupta (54), Kavitha Sakthi (49), Prathisha Gupta (29), H Jayasanthosh (25) and H Jayavignesh (25).

Police seized Rs 4.5 lakh, 44 sovereign gold and diamond jewellery, two luxury cars, two laptops, 14 cell phones and case-related documents from the accused. All the accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.