Financial fraud case; Soubin Shahir need not appear today, time extended, say police

KOCHI: Actor and producer Soubin Shahir need not appear today in the financial fraud case linked with ‘Manjummel Boys’. The police said the actor's time to appear has been extended and he needs to appear only on June 27. The Maradu police had served a notice to the actor on June 5 asking him to appear before the investigation team within 14 days.

The investigating officers had issued notices to the film's co-producers Babu Shahir and Shawn Antony. The Kerala High Court had earlier ordered that the investigation into the case could continue. The order rejected the producers' demand.

A case was registered against the three producers and the investigation began on the complaint of Siraj Valiyathara of Aroor, alleging that he had invested Rs 7 crore in the film on the assurance that he would receive 40% of the profits, but was denied the same despite the film’s success.

The producers have been charged with forgery, breach of trust and conspiracy. Chidambaram's Manjummel Boys was an industry hit that collected over Rs 235 crore globally. Disney Hotstar had acquired the OTT rights of the film. The plot of the film is about a group of youngsters from Kochi who went to Kodaikanal for a pleasure trip and the incidents they face there.

Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Balu Varghese, Ganapathy, Lal Junior, Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Deepak Parambol, Khalid Rahman, Arun Kurian, and Vishnu Raghu were in lead roles in the film.