A special court in Coimbatore on Friday sentenced a man and his wife to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) on charges of cheating 244 depositors of over ₹3.95 crore by running an emu contract farming scam in Erode district in 2012.
Legal sources said that M. Muniyan alias Pandian alias Murugavel (47) and his wife Mariammal alias Latha (45) of Perundurai in Erode district were the managing directors of Sree Nithya Emu Farms and Sree Nithya Poultry Farms India Private Limited.
By advertising two schemes to rear emu and country chicks, the firms had collected ₹3,95,72,000 from 244 depositors. By August 2012, the firm had shut down and the couple had absconded.
Based on the complaint of one of the depositors, the Economic Offences Wing police in Erode district and the police registered a case against the couple on August 28, 2012 under Sections 120 B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy), 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code along with sections of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (TNPID) Act. The Erode EOW police subsequently arrested Muniyan and Mariammal along with nine others involved in the case, the sources said.
On Friday, judge of the Special Court for TNPID Act cases A.S. Ravi sentenced the couple to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and levied a total fine of ₹2.44 crore. Out of this fine amount, ₹2.4 crore must be distributed among the depositors, the court ordered. The remaining nine accused were acquitted. The special court issued a non-bailable warrant against Mariammal as she did not appear before the court on Friday, according to the sources.
