The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) police in Salem have arrested four trustees, including the founders of the St. Mother Theresa Humanitarian Charitable Trust, for allegedly deceiving investors and cheating them out of several crores of rupees. The arrest came after the EOW took suo motu cognisance of an investment scheme run by the trust.
The trust was founded two years ago by Vijayabanu and Jayapradha, and later joined by Baskar and Syed Muhammed. It initially offered free services like computer courses, tailoring, English coaching, TNPSC coaching, and tuition to school students. Additionally, it provided free lunches to ten people. However, as time passed, the trustees invited deposits from the public under various schemes, including groceries chit, pension schemes, housing plot schemes, and gold jewel schemes, promising high returns.
In January 2025, the trust launched a Super Bumper Scheme, promising returns of Rs 2.30 lakh for an investment of Rs 1 lakh over a period of nine months. Many individuals invested large sums, which led the EOW to suspect that the operation was a Ponzi scheme. The investigation revealed that the trust did not follow RBI guidelines and was operating illegally.
The EOW arrested the four trustees, and during the raid, they seized Rs 12.68 crore in cash, 3 kg of gold jewelry, and 13 kg of silver from the trust’s premises. The suspects were produced before the TNPID Court in Coimbatore and were remanded to police custody for further investigation.
