keralamonitor.com
White Collar Crimes: Malayali salesman absconding with Rs. 28 lakhs Santhosh Muscat - A leading Dubai based Marketing Company has filed a complaint with the Royal Oman Police (Sohar) against an Indian salesman Santhosh (Kizhakkumpadam Madakara), son of K Rajan, Chirakkal House, Balipatnam Kannur who has been absconding with more than RO 25,000 (Rs. 28 lakhs) of the company. According to Al Reef officials, the company has lodged a complaint with the Indian Embassy, Muscat and a complaint will be lodged with the Kannur District Police Commissioner and Norka against the culprit who has been working as a salesman for the last five years.Santhosh is only one of the many Malayalees who come to the Gulf thinking that they can make quick bucks and become rich overnight! When many of them realise that through proper channel they cannot become ultra rich so fast they resort to easy ways to become rich. This route has been found easy by people working in the marketing field who handle lot of hard cash without proper checks and balances.
According to the charges, Santhosh was missing from August 28th night onwards and his recently married wife (from Talapa in Kannur) left their Sohar residence a few days before her husband disappeared. It is learned that Santhosh was representing Al Reef, a firm marketing Omela and Rainbow brand milk. The culprit acted as an outdoor van sales representative agents for Rainbow and omela milk products since the last five years. His job involved selling the company products and debt collection from more than 450 supermarkets between Mulada and Aqar area. Instead of depositing the money with the company, he has absconded with the amount.
Santhosh used to pretend forgetness and borrowed from the company officials. 'We gave him personal loans to the tune of RO 15,00 when we learned that the family business run by his father was on the verge of bankruptcy. Despite that, he has cheated the company and absconded with huge amount," says a Regional Sales Manager of the Company. "His wife, Mrs. Udaya Premaraj, is the daughter of Dr. M.K. Prem Rajan (Sarang, Talap, Kannur 2, India, Phone: 703296). Sathosh is from balipatnam, kannur phone number 778197),' he said, adding that coming from a respected family, nobody in the company had any doubts about his intentions.
Mrs. Udaya Premaraj, wife of Santhosh, who has also disappeared with the husband This is one of the several absconding cases of Malayali salesman leaving bad reputation for the entire Indian community in the Gulf. Recently another salesman from Kollad, Kottayam run away with huge amounts of money from the company, leaving bad reputation for the Malayali community in Oman. The salesman of National Detergent-Bucker Suleiman Jaffer was reportedly missing with huge amount of cash and even the company vehicle. This Malayali even left behind his family and two children in Oman and allegedly absconded with the money. Some people even suspect whether he has been killed by criminals for taking the money and vehicle.Many of them indulge in luxurious life styles and end up spending more than their earnings.
Since there is no extradition treaty between Oman and India, white collar criminal tendency is strong among the sales personnel who handle huge amount of money. Even if they go to India after committing a serious crime, they are safe there. The number of such absconding cases has been increasing and some of the culprits have used the amnesty route to go leaving even their passport.
A few months back, a leading trading house run by Gujarathi expatriate businessmen, faced some financial trouble and the two partners disappeared overnight, duping all major business houses in Oman. Twilight Trading, with head office in Mattrah was a well respected name among the trading community, till the two Gujarathi brothers left the country on a Diwali day, leaving huge amount of unpaid dues to creditors. The dues left by Twilight is believed to be running into millions of Indian rupees and the duo never came back.
Another accountant of a leading supermarket was misappropriating company funds by manipulating the operations of an electronic machine used by the Cashier. The culprit used to swindle money from the company accounts for about a decade and when he was caught, the amount was running into a big amount. A number of small companies floated by the accountant in his hometown Tamil Nadu were doing a roaring export business to Oman. Even thought the accountant was arrested and put behind bars for some time, he agreed to pay back a huge amount and settle the matter!
The main problem is lack of proper checks and balances over the sales team, who often deal with customers in distant parts of the Sultanate. It is a common practice among the marketing personnel and supermarkets run by expatriates to hatch conspiracy and make quick bucks by manipulating accounts or by making other adjustments. Another practice is to show consignments of goods being delivered to a particular shop in the records, but the supermarket owner sells the same in the Buraimi market for ready cash.
(c)keralamonitor.com 2001
