Villagers protest after pawnbroker flees with chit fund money

According to the police, Mohan Lal from Pavunchur in Maduranthagam has been running a pawnshop for the last few years. Along with this, he also was running a Deepavali chit fund scheme. Police said Mohan Lal introduced a scheme wherein four-gram gold along with a silk saree, crackers and sweets would be given a week before Deepavali to those who paid Rs 1,000 every month.

Believing him, hundreds of people joined the scheme. But, a week before Deepavali, Mohan Lal vacated his house overnight. Shocked to realise that they have been cheated, the villagers filed complaints with the Anaicut police but no action was taken.

On Tuesday morning, the angry villagers surrounded another pawnshop near Mohan Lal’s shop in protest. They claimed that as both of them from the same State, he might know Mohan Lal’s whereabouts. The Anaicut police arrived to the spot and convinced the villagers to stop the agitation and file a complaint at the Kancheepuram SP office.