Two accused in emu scam sentenced to 5 years in jail

COIMBATORE: Four years after the Emu bubble burst, the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors Act Court (TNPID) in Coimbatore has convicted two of the accused, who ran emu farms and cheated investors, to five years imprisonment. Apart from this, the judge has also imposed on them a collective fine of 12 lakh.
The two, who ran Sri Sakthi Emu Farms, had duped investors of 12 lakh, promising them huge returns in 2012.
On the complaint of V Chinnaveeran on December 7, 2012, the Perundurai police in Erode registered a case against N Senthil Kumar, 42, and G Ganeshan, 32, both residents of Perundurai. Investigations revealed that they had collected deposits to the tune of 12 lakh.
The chargesheet was filed before the TNPID court in Coimbatore in November 2013. After Senthil Kumar failed to appear before the court, judge K Babu issued a warrant against him. The Perundurai police arrested Senthil Kumar and he was remanded in judicial custody in October, 2016.
On Wednesday, the judge found them guilty under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and sentenced them to three years imprisonment, besides imposing on them a penalty of 80,000 each. The judge also sentenced them to five years imprisonment under Section 5 of TNPID Act and also slapped with a fine of 4 lakh each. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 2.4 lakh on the company, Sri Sakthi Emu Farms, under sections 4 and 5 of the TNPID Act. The judge said if they failed to pay the penalties, they will spend another year in jail.
As per the Coimbatore economic offences wing, the city has registered 25 cases under Emu scam, with over 5,000 complaints and a default amount of 150 crore. The officials said over 100 have already been arrested, including the mastermind M S Guru, the biggest promoter of emu contract farming. Totally, in the state, out of the 105 emu cases, 92 are in the court.
In 2006, several farmers from Erode, Namakkal, Salem, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Karur, Sivagangai, Trichy and Tirunelveli districts and other areas in Tamil Nadu were lured into joining the emu farming scheme, depositing huge amounts of money. They were promised high returns which were paid in the initial months but soon the payments stopped and the scamsters absconded.
The owner of the company, Susi Emu Farms at Perundurai absconded but was later arrested based on complaints from farmers in 2012. The EOW of Tamil Nadu police has registered 105 cases with over 24,687 complaints from the depositors who were cheated to the tune of 496.31 crore.