Hawala transaction worth crores; 'Highrich' couple escape from house in Thrissur just before ED arrival

THRISSUR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that the owners of the 'Highrich' online shoppe, who were accused in the multi-crore Hawala money laundering case, have escaped. It is reported that shortly before the ED raided the house of Highrich owners in Thrissur, company MD KD Prathapan, his wife and company CEO Sreena Prathapan and their driver Saran escaped in a jeep. ED officials reached their house in Thrissur today at 11 o'clock in the morning.

ED raid continues at company owner Prathapan's house for financial fraud. ED is investigating the complaint that the Highrich company has transferred around one hundred crore rupees abroad and has sought help from the police to nab the accused. Earlier, the GST department found that Highrich Online Shoppe Pvt Ltd had evaded tax of Rs 126 crore.

This is one of the biggest cases of evasion detected by the state GST department. Kolath Pratapan, the company director, was earlier arrested for tax evasion. Later he got bail and came out. Highrich Shoppe is an e-commerce platform on a multi-level marketing model. A case was filed against them by Wadakkancherry's former MLA and Congress leader Anil Akkara.