Owners of Kerela's Mango brand and mPhone arrested on charges of fraud

The makers of Kerala’s Mango phone, a brand that was set to launch its new mPhone line-up in India, were arrested today at the launch event. Police charged the makers with “duping a leading bank”, claiming that the Bank of Baroda had lodged a complaint against the brand’s promoters.

The brand, Mango phone, has been in the making for a while now and apparently involves Rs 3,500 crores in investment as well as a research and development centre in Korea. Two of the company’s directors, Anto Augustine and Josekutty Augustine, were arrested on the day of the launch. The two brothers were involved in the promotion of the brand. They allegedly duped the Bank of Baroda and State Bank of India, among others, of crores of rupees by forging documents related to a plot of land that was “already pledged for Rs 11.57 crore”, reports The New Indian Express. They had also been absconding for a year, allegedly. It’s been revealed that the police were tipped off by bank authorities following a sighting on Facebook. The police, under Chief Inspector Martin C J, apprehended the accused at the hotel where the launch even was being organised. The arrested brothers are said to own the company and another sibling, Rojy Augustine, is the chairman. The latter was quoted as saying, “We have no knowledge about the complaint lodged by Bank of Baroda. The police neither probed the matter nor did they ever seek our explanation. The police were acting under pressure from someone who wants to sabotage the company.” The company was all set to launch with quite a bang, offering a complete range of mPhone branded mobiles and accessories. The line-up includes the mPhone 5s, the mPhone 11s, an MWC wireless charger, an M2 smartwatch, bluetooth headsets and many more. The pricing so far also appears to be quite varied, with phones available from Rs 4,000 to over 39,000, depending on the model.