Chennai: In a major development, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Chennai Police has registered a first information report (FIR) against the beleaguered Franklin Templeton Asset Management India Pvt Ltd (FTAMIL) and Franklin Templeton Trustee Services Pvt Ltd (FTTSPL) for hatching criminal conspiracy to defraud three lakh investors by causing wrongful loss to them and unlawful gain to themselves by committing various offences under the IPC.
The FIR also names Santosh Das Kamath, MD and Chief Investment Officer, FTAMIL, Sanjay V Sapre, whole time member, FTAMIL, and their directors Jayaram Subramaniam Iyer, Vivek Kudva, RV Subramaniam, Pradip P Shah among others.
The EOW registered the FIR after investigating a complaint filed by the Chennai Financial Markets & Accountability (CFMA), the investors’ group, and few others with EOW in Chennai in May this year in the interest of millions of aggrieved investors of Franklin Templeton whose over Rs 28,000 crore is stuck because the fund house abruptly closed down its six debt schemes in April this year.
Subsequently, a larger number of investors have dragged Franklin Templeton in court demanding refund of their investments. Meanwhile, investors all over the country are now demanding a cash-back especially when Franklin Templeton recently claimed that two of the funds, Franklin India Low Duration Fund and Franklin India Credit Risk Fund turned cash-positive on August 31.
