Kolalambu victims form action council

Thrissur: The victims of the Rs 2,400-crore  Kolalambu NRI fraud has formed an action council here demanding the state and Central governments to hand over the investigation to the CBI. There are nearly 1,000 victims mainly from Kolalambu village in Malappuram, and some from Chavakkad in Thrissur and they had submitted a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his two-day visit to Kerala in December last year demanding the transfer of the probe to either the CBI or the NIA.

The City Dew Real Estate Company formed in 2004 in the UAE by some Arabs and businessmen from Kolalambu had allegedly swindled money promising attractive returns. The victims and the investigating officers said though six persons were arrested in Kerala over the scam that broke out in 2008, all of them are out on bail and doing business in different parts of the country.  Some of them were even flying to the UAE frequently.

DySP P.B. Prasob of Economic Offence Wing of the Crime Branch is presently leading the investigation. The enforcement wing of the Union Government has been attaching the properties of the accused persons and their relatives. But the victims who formed the action council on Sunday said that the market price of these properties would amount to only Rs 250 crores. So, CBI should take over the case going by the size of the scam and because the siphoned money was used by the scamsters to buy properties all across India.