MD of firm that duped investors of Rs 150 crore dies by suicide in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: S Sathishkumar, the managing director of Dream Makers Global Private Limited who was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) police in 2019 for duping investors of around Rs 150 crore, died by suicide at his residence at Ramalinga Nagar 5th Cross in KK Pudur in Coimbatore on Monday.

On late Sunday night, Sathishkumar came home under the influence of alcohol. He was speaking to someone over the phone. His wife S Gunavathi, 39, and his daughter had gone to the first floor of the house to sleep. Around 6am on Monday, Gunavathi found her husband hanging from the ceiling of the ground floor. She informed 108 ambulance services. The ambulance service the staff reached the house and declared him dead.

The Saibaba Colony police were informed. The body was sent to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for postmortem. The police registered a case under Section 174 CrPC. Further investigations were on.

According to sources, Sathishkumar and his wife started Dream Makers Global (DGM) Private Limited at Saibaba Coloy in 2017. Sathishkumar was the managing director and his wife, Gunavathi, was the director of the firm.

Sathishkumar announced various schemes to lure investors. He promised to pay them Rs 100 for 150 days for every investment of Rs 6,000, which he said would be invested in online trading. In total, he announced 12 such schemes.

Manojkumar, 35, of Udayampalayam, who invested Rs 6.80 lakh in the firm in 2018, lodged a complaint with the EOW police in 2019 when the couple defaulted on the payment and started to avoid him. He was paid back just a lakh. The EOW police registered a case against the couple under sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5 of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interest of Deposit Act. The police arrested the couple on September 28, 2019. The police seized two cars from them. The couple were lodged in jail.

The couple had collected a total of Rs 300 crore from the investors since 2017 and returned around Rs 150 crore. Following huge transactions in its accounts, three nationalised bank authorities had stopped the transactions and asked the couple to withdraw money after producing valid documents. The bank authorities also alerted the income tax department and directorate of enforcement.

The EOW police froze Rs 75 crore in the three bank accounts and identified many properties belonged to the couple. The couple obtained conditional bail and came out of the prison in 2020. The case trial was held before the special court for the TNPID Act cases.