‘Antiquities Dealer’ arrested for allegedly scamming people; used luxury cars to fake wealth!

A conman identified as Monson Mavunkal was arrested by the crime branch on Sunday in Kerala. Monson allegedly was heading a scam to earn crores from rich celebrities and businessmen. While mostly dealing in fake antique artefacts, Monson used several high-end vehicles to impress his clients and show off his powerful position.

The Police says that Monson took money from many after claiming that he had sold antiques worth crores to buyers abroad. Monson told his clients that he will get Rs 24 crore from the sale but due to some technical reasons, the money is yet to arrive in his account in India from his foreign account. Monson used a fake deposit certificate to convince the lenders. An investigation by the police shows that Monson does not hold any international bank account. In fact, he has never travelled outside India.

Use of luxury cars

Monson owns more than 30 cars that were parked at his rented house. He used to collect cars and used them to visit people to impress them and put his influential image ahead. Even though he owned more than 30 cars, only a few of them are in working condition.

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Monsoon’s collection including high-end vehicles like Porsche, Bentley, Land Cruiser, DC Avanti, Land Rover Range Rover and many others. According to a report, Monson used to visit events announced in his luxury vehicles. The conman travelled with his team of bodyguards. Around 7-8 bodyguards travelled with him to the events in a convoy.

To impress the attendees, Monson gave fake guns to the security guards too. Also, he made donations worth lakhs to the events to attract the attention of the rich businessmen. He even sponsored a church event after spending more than Rs 1 crore on the event.

Contacts with VIP

Even though Monson ran the scam for years, he was never caught by the police. The crime branch found out that Monson made connections with high ranking officials in the police, politicians and even celebrities like movie stars.

He had clicked several pictures with influential people and used these pictures to influence others. According to the crime branch, there are many complaints against Monson for selling fake artefacts. However, the police did not take action against him.

The crime branch received the complaint and started investigating the matter to find out that several high ranking police officers are probably involved in the scam. Former DGP Loknath Behera and ADGP Manoj Abraham are also present in many pictures with Monson.

The police have arrested Monson and are likely to seize his collection of cars and other artefacts too.

Also read: Man sells car online & “steals it back 5 times”