The Madras High Court has denied anticipatory bail to a suspended police inspector in the gold coin scam case

The Madras High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to suspended police inspector Sheela Mary accused of inducing police personnel and others to invest money in a business run by her private driver by promising them gold and land at discounted rates.

Justice C. Kumarappan rejected the bail application after stiff opposition from the prosecution. The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) in Chennai has booked Ms Mary, her driver Prabhu Mani and his employee Senthil as well as Kalpana in connection with the alleged financial fraud.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against them on 25 May 2026 based on a complaint filed by S. Venkatraman, a branch manager of a private bank, who allegedly deposited Rs 89.32 lakh of his personal money with Vinayaga Enterprises of Kodungaiyur in Chennai.

According to the complainant, he was serving as a manager at the Royapuram branch of the bank from 2023 to 2025 when he tried to induce a female customer who was serving as a police sub-inspector at the Royapuram All Women Police Station to invest some money in fixed deposits.

The sub-inspector allegedly told the complainant that her superior Ms Mary’s younger brother was offering better returns on the investments she made with him by returning the money in the form of gold coins at a discount of ₹1,400 per gram compared to the market rate in a very short time.

Attracted by her words, the complainant allegedly met Ms. Mary at the police station where he was told that her brother was offering gold at low prices only to police personnel and that Mr. Venkatraman would also be entitled to a discount as his father happened to be a former police inspector.

He was then directed to the Kodungaiyur office of Vinayaga Enterprises where the main accused Prabhu Mani made the complainant invest as much money as possible and stated that almost all the police personnel in North Chennai police stations invested their money with him.

The complainant availed the loan, pledged his wife’s jewellery, borrowed money from his parents and deposited a total of `89.32 lakhs in the bank account of Vinayaga Enterprises and Prabhu Mani in various installments between 20 April 2024 and 3 July 2024.

After receiving the money, the accused started avoiding the complainant without giving gold coins in return. When confronted, he returned ₹27.81 lakh in installments before closing the office and fleeing. It was only later that it came to light that Prabhu Mani was actually the driver and not Ms Mary’s brother, the complainant said.

Urging the police to initiate action against the accused and help him recover the remaining ₹61.51 lakh, Mr. Venkatraman said many other investors were also duped.

Subsequently, the Joint Commissioner of Police (North Zone), Greater Chennai Police, on 16 June 2026, suspended Ms Mary from service pending an investigation into allegations of her role in defrauding police personnel and others of ₹2 crore.

Published – 28 Jun 2026 22:13 IST