Monson Mavunkal: Peddler of lies and ‘antiques’ now convicted of raping minor

On June 17, a Kochi-based POCSO court found Monson guilty of repeatedly raping and impregnating the minor, who is the daughter of his former employee. Besides sentencing him to life term, it also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him under various Sections of the POCSO Act. According to the prosecution, Monson had been raping the minor since 2019. Although he got bail in cases related to financial fraud, he has been in judicial custody since 2021 in connection with the POCSO case. The hearing in the rape case filed under Section 376 of IPC is pending. Monson has also been accused of rape in two more cases — one filed by a former employee and the other in connection with the assault of another staff member’s minor daughter.

The aftershocks of Monson’s fall from grace were felt within his network of high-profile politicians and bureaucrats. Photos of Monson in the company of his “friends in high places” — state Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine, state Ports Minister Ahammed Devarkovil, Kerala Congress president K Sudhakaran, former state police chief Loknath Behera, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Manoj Abraham, Inspector General (IG) Lakshman Gugulloth and former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) S Surendran — went viral on social media after his September 2021 arrest. The worst affected, perhaps, were Gugulloth and Sudhakaran.

Besides sentencing him to life imprisonment for repeatedly raping the minor, a Kochi-based POCSO court on June 17 also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Monson Mavunkal under various Sections of the POCSO Act. Although he got bail in cases related to financial fraud, Monson had been in judicial custody since 2021 in connection with the rape case. (File photo)

Probe revealed that Monson had flaunted his high-profile links in the state police to allegedly use police vehicles for personal reasons like shopping. Surendran escaped by the skin of his teeth since he had superannuated in May 2021, but Gugulloth was suspended after this scandal came to light after Monson’s September 2021 arrest. Gugulloth was reinstated in February 2023 as the principal of a Police Training College.

For Sudhakaran, the repercussions were more visible and more severe. On June 23, he was arrested on charges of alleged complicity in the Rs 10-crore cheating case involving Monson. Sudhakaran was later released on bail, as directed by the Kerala High Court on June 21. The High Court had ordered that in the event of arrest, the Congress leader should be released on bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 50,000, with two solvent sureties. The complainant had alleged that Monson took the money in Sudhakaran’s presence.

Dismissing the allegations as rubbish, Sudhakaran had said, “I only knew Monson as a cosmetologist and consulted him for treatment. He had told me the antiques in his house were precious and worth crores. If he is a fraudster, what were the police officers doing at his house? I suspect the involvement of the CMO (Chief Minister’s Office) behind the allegation against me.”

Monson’s mansion in Kochi allegedly “contained priceless relics of history and was the place where the past met the present”. His “impressive antique collection” included the “sword and throne belonging to Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan”; the “staff of Moses” referred to in the Bible; the “sword of the Nizam of Hyderabad”; the “dahi handi used by Lord Krishna himself”; “two of the silver coins that Judas had received for betraying Jesus”; and a “chembola (copper plate) connected to the Sabarimala Sree Ayyappan Temple”, among others. Monson also claimed to possess the oldest copies of religious texts of Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

His Kochi home was allegedly frequented by senior police officers. A picture doing the rounds on social media shows Behera, then the state police chief, sitting on “Tipu’s antique throne”, while ADGP Abraham holds “Tipu’s sword” in Monson’s Kochi mansion.

In the midst of the 2018 agitation over the entry of young women into Sabarimala, Monson had claimed that he possessed a chembola with inscriptions on Dravidian rituals and traditions at the hill shrine. At the time of Monson’s claim, there was an ongoing debate on whether the deity at the shrine was Dravidian or Aryan. Monson managed to hog the limelight without raising any suspicions. After his arrest in the fraud case, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) examined the chembola and declared it fake. A later police investigation revealed that almost all other “antique items” were either cheap duplicates or objects with little antique value.

Before his arrest, Monson had successfully pulled the wool over people’s eyes by convincing them that he had been in the business of antiques for years. He even had them convinced that he had sold antiques worth Rs 2.62 lakh crore to royal families in the Middle East. A Crime Branch officer said, “Showing them artefacts in his museum, Monson would make VIPs believe that he had sourced priceless objects from various countries through auctions.”

Monson’s house of cards, painstakingly constructed over a foundation of lies, was bulletproof until September 2021. According to police complaints by “investors” he had duped, the conman had allegedly pocketed crores from them after promising to “make them partners in a proposed antique museum, the largest of its kind in the world”. In videos that emerged after his arrest, Monson is heard telling his investors that his wealth “was stuck in the Middle East”. He allegedly told them that he was in need of money to “clear legal hurdles to get the amount transferred from HSBC Bank to his bank account in Kerala”. Monson also boasted that “only a few knew about the wealth he was sitting on and how he would emerge as the richest man in Kerala”.

Deputy Superintendent of Police YR Restem, the investigating officer in the fraud case, said, “Monson forged HSBC Bank documents to make it seem as if his money — Rs 2.62 lakh crore — was stuck abroad. Using his wide network of friends, he approached businessmen and NRIs for financial help to clear these hurdles in transferring the money from the Middle East to his bank account in Kerala. He promised to return their money with handsome interest. No one doubted him due to his famous antiques business and his links with influential people in society.’’

The officer said as per the complaints received from across Kerala, Monson duped people to the tune of Rs 25 crore. “We suspect that he conned people to the tune of Rs 100 crore. Many are not ready to file complaints fearing that they will have to reveal the sources of their income and for many of Monson’s high-profile victims, coming forward to complain equals humiliation,” he added.

With no personal wealth to fall back on, investigators said, Monson lived a luxurious life on others’ money. Even though he never travelled abroad, he was a patron of several Non-Resident Keralite (NRK) associations.

However, very little is known about Monson’s life before he became a “dealer of antiques”. Monson belonged to Charamangalam near Cherthala and had studied till class 10. He joined a seminary to become a priest, but reportedly abandoned it midway. People remember him as a sacristan (an assistant for a priest) at the local Catholic church. He fell in love with a nun at a church-run school and the duo got married. The young couple later shifted to the high ranges of Idukki, the place where Monson’s trajectory of cheating started.

At Rajakumari village in Idukki nearly three decades ago, Monson started selling used electronic items and home appliances that he sourced from Kochi, around 100 km from Idukki. Rajakumari resident Binoy, who was an electrician in the village, claimed that Monson had taken Rs 10,000 from him after promising to deliver a sound system. “Monson told me that he would get me a sound system that I could rent out. But he never kept his word,” he alleged.

Some of the objects in Monson’s collection were obtained from Santhosh, a resident of Kilimanoor in Thiruvananthapuram. In his complaint to the police in October 2021, Santhosh claimed that Monson had allegedly promised to pay him Rs 3 crore but never ended up making the payment.

Years later, Monson went back to Cherthala, this time as a dealer of cosmetic products and antique items. From Cherthala, he moved base to Kochi. It was in Kochi that Monson projected himself as a doctor of cosmetology. In his mansion, always teeming with a battery of private security guards, Monson also ran a massage facility. Outside the house, thanks to his contacts with senior officers, the local police ensured regular surveillance since it was believed the mansion housed priceless antiques.

Police officials said Monson started an antiques business in Kochi in 2012. “He started with items that were either dismantled or used for film shoots. He went for robust online promotions and started adding fakes to his collection. Only a few coins and utensils in his collection had some antique value,’’ said police sources.

Despite the odd complaint against him over the years, Crime Branch sources said, Monson always managed to get away scot-free. He would allegedly drop names of senior officers if the complainants approached the local police. “He would call (senior police) officials in front of the complainants and ensure that no action was taken based on their grievances…,” said a source.

Monson’s carefully constructed façade crumbled when one of his victims filed a complaint with the Chief Minister in July 2021. Six persons who had lost a total of Rs 10 crore to Monson had moved the complaint.

One of the complaints, MT Shameer, an entrepreneur in Kozhikode, said, “Monson sought money from us through a common friend. He told us that his money was stuck in the Middle East and that he needed a few crores to clear the way for the deposit to India. Nobody suspected him of fraud due to his connections in society. We don’t think our money will be recovered. We believe he has already squandered it,” rued Shameer.