The Coimbatore Chief Judicial Magistrate Court has convicted six accused in a foreign job scam case, five of whom have been sentenced to 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a total fine of Rs 54 lakh, while another accused has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 2 lakh.
The convicted persons include the firm’s managing director Puliyil Cherian along with Francis Arun, Asha Charlotte and Santosh William, who have been sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment. Another accused, Preetha Kumar, has been sentenced to four years’ rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 2 lakh, the CBI said in a release.
The court on Thursday also ordered confiscation of the properties of the convicts and directed them to sell 448 grams of gold jewelery seized during the investigation to compensate the victims.
According to the investigating agency, the accused had started a firm named Yanbo Associates in Gandhipuram in 2005. They are accused of using fake foreign employment permits and charging fees ranging from Rs 80,000 to Rs 3 lakh per person. The accused lured mainly young professionals and laborers by promising them high-paying jobs in the United Kingdom and Cyprus.
The case was initially registered by the Kattoor police of Coimbatore city and was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2011 on the orders of the Madras High Court. The CBI later registered a case on March 18, 2011, against eight accused, who were later arrested in Mumbai.
After completion of the investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet against the accused on 21 March 2012. After hearing the case, the court convicted the accused and sentenced them accordingly. During the hearing of the case, three accused Narayanan Ramesh Babu, V N Shine and Benjamin William Sower died, resulting in the charges against them being dropped.