Police custody of Goodwin owners extended till December 26

The owners of Goodwin Jewellers, arrested in connection with a multi-crore cheating case involving thousands of investors, were on Tuesday remanded in police custody for two more days by a local court.

A M Sudheerkumar and A M Sunilkumar, both brothers and owners of the fraud-hit jewellery chain originally hailing from Kerala, were produced before District Judge P P Jadhav who remanded them to two more days of police custody (till December 26) for further interrogation.

The investigating officer in the case told the court his team has come across one more property of the accused in Kerala.

Besides this, the police have come across certain information which they want to verify with the accused in custody, he said, while seeking further remand of the duo.

The officer told the court about details of money received by Goodwin Jewellers from customers who had invested in its different schemes.

The duo surrendered to the Thane court on December 14 and subsequently arrested by the city police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) which is probing the cheating case.

The jewellery firm had shut its outlets in Thane, Palghar, Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra a couple of days before Diwali, leaving hundreds of people, who had invested in its gold and fixed deposit schemes, in the lurch.

Sudheerkumar and Sunilkumar had gone into hiding when the fraud came to light, prompting the police to launch a massive manhunt.

The two promoters were later booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 34 (common intention) and also provisions of the Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments (MPID) Act.