Padma Shri awardee Sundar Menon arrested for ‘Rs 7-crore investment fraud’

According to Thrissur City Police Commissioner R Ilango, Menon did not repay the investors upon the maturity of the schemes they deposited money in. Instead, he allegedly diverted the money.

The money totalled Rs 7.87 crore, collected from 62 people. “The assets of the firms’ directors, including Menon, have been frozen and steps have been initiated for the assets to be confiscated. Another director, Puthenveettil Biju Manikandan, who is in the City Police’s ‘rogues list’, was also arrested in the case,” the Commissioner said.

Menon, 63, is also the president of the Thrissur-based Thiruvambady Devaswom (Temple) Board.

In 2016, he was conferred the Padma Shri in the field of social work.

An NRI businessman from Thrissur, Menon has faced several cases. In September 2023, a PIL was moved in the Kerala High Court seeking the awarding of the Padma Shri to Menon be declared illegal. The petitioners, V R Jyothish of Thrissur and C K Padmanabhan of Kozhikode, said conferring the award to Menon was contrary to the principles and procedures to be followed in granting prestigious national awards. They said Menon was involved in more than one criminal case — a fact that, according to them, had not been noticed when the award was given to him.

The court dismissed the petition, saying that it did not find anything of public interest in it.

“However, it is open to the petitioners to make a request before the concerned authority to cancel or annul the award…,” the court said.

Menon has been associated with several charitable causes, including the Sun Charitable Trust, the Pain and Palliative Care Society, the Autism Society, the Alpha Pain Clinic, the All India Handicapped Association, and the Renal and Kidney Welfare Foundation.

He has also received an honorary doctorate in 2015 from the European Continental Community University in the United States, and was also facilitated at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards, 2015.