Kollam (PTI): More than 21 hours after a six-year-old girl was kidnapped from Pooyappally in southern Kerala a day ago, the child was found abandoned, but safe, in a public ground here on Tuesday afternoon.

 

Police and local body officials confirmed the good news that the child has been found and that she has been taken for medical examination.

 

Visuals on TV channels showed police officials carrying the child in their arms to their vehicles and taking her away for a medical examination.

Information about the child being abandoned in Kollam's Asramam ground was received while police were desperately searching for the girl. Earlier in the day, while state ministers expressed confidence in the police investigation, the youth wing of Congress held a silent protest outside the Pooyappally police station over the delay in rescue of the girl and also indicating their dissatisfaction with the investigation. The police had said that it was exploring all angles to locate the missing child and had also released a sketch of the suspected kidnapper.

The kidnappers, suspected to be four in number including a woman, came in a white car and abducted the girl when she was on her way to tuition classes along with her eight-year-old brother, according to the boy's statement to the police.

When the boy tried to stop the abductors, they pushed him aside and whisked the girl away in the car, an officer from the Pooyappally police station had said on Monday.

The boy suffered injuries to his knees while trying to save his sister, police had said.

The incident occurred on Monday between 4 pm and 4.30 pm, according to the police.

 

According to visuals shown on television news channels, two ransom calls were allegedly made by the kidnappers. Initially, they demanded Rs 5 lakh and then later doubled the figure.

In the audio recording of the purported second ransom call shown on TV channels, the kidnappers could be heard saying that the girl is safe and unharmed and will be returned on Tuesday morning on a payment of Rs 10 lakh.

The kidnappers had also warned the parents not to inform the police.

Prior to that, a ransom call demanding Rs 5 lakh was received by the parents a few hours after the kidnapping.

Police had intensified the search for the girl, with vehicles being checked on all major and minor roads in the southern districts of Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram.

Visuals showed police officers checking vehicles, especially white-coloured ones, on the roads.

The parents of the children are nurses working in two separate private hospitals.

 

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New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday it has arrested a woman, who claims to be an actor and a cosmetologist, under the anti-money laundering law in a case of alleged fraud and misrepresentation.

The agency said the purported links of the woman, Sandeepa Virk, with a Reliance Group executive, Angarai Natarajan Sethuraman (President, Corporate Affairs), are also under its scanner. Sethuraman, in a statement, denied any connection with Virk or any transactions related to her.

Virk was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday after searches were conducted against her and her associates in Delhi and Mumbai over the last two days.

A special court sent her to the ED's custody till August 14, the agency said. The woman claims to be the owner of a skin care products selling website named hyboocare.com, which the ED claimed was a "front" for money laundering.

She and her associates are being probed for allegedly exerting undue influence through "misrepresentation" and "defrauding" individuals by soliciting money under false pretences.

According to an Instagram ID of Virk, she is an actor and entrepreneur and the founder of the said website.

The federal agency said in a statement that the woman was also "in touch with" Sethuraman, former director of erstwhile Reliance Capital Limited.

She was communicating with him regarding "illegal liaisoning", the ED claimed, adding that the searches at Sethuraman's residence "confirmed" these allegations.

"Besides, diversion of funds for personal benefit has also been unearthed during the course of the search action," it said.

The ED alleged that public money worth about Rs 18 crore belonging to Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) was disbursed to Sethuraman in 2018 by "flouting" prudent lending norms.

The funds were lent under terms that allowed a deferment of the principal amount as well as the interest, with multiple waivers granted and no due diligence conducted, it said.

The ED claimed that besides this, a home loan of Rs 22 crore was provided by Reliance Capital Limited by "violating" the prudential norms. "A large part of these loans are seen to have been eventually siphoned off and remained unpaid," it alleged.

Sethuraman, in a statement, dismissed the allegations as "baseless". He denied any connection with Virk or any transactions related to her.

Detailing about Virk's web portal, the agency said it purportedly sold FDA-approved beauty products. However, the ED said the products listed on the website have been found to be non-existent and the portal lacks a user registration option and is plagued by persistent payment gateway issues.

A scrutiny of the website uncovered minimal social-media engagement, an inactive WhatsApp contact number and an absence of transparent organisational details, all of which reinforce the finding of "non-genuine" commercial activity, the ED claimed.

"These factors, including limited product range, inflated pricing, false claims of FDA approval and technical inconsistencies, indicate that the website serves as a front for laundering funds," it said.

Another social media-hosted bio data of the woman said she is a certified cosmetologist.

The ED said several "incriminating" documents were seized during the searches and the statement of a man named Farrukh Ali, stated to be an associate of Virk, was recorded.

The money-laundering case stems from an FIR lodged by the Punjab Police.

Sethuraman said that the home loan he received from Reliance Capital was granted following due process and was secured by the property offered as collateral.