Goodwin Jewellers shuts shops, owners go into hiding

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Oct 28, 2019

Goodwin Group’s jewellery business’ owners shut its brick-and-mortar stores without notice and have gone into hiding leaving thousands of investors with no information, according to TNN. The police have launched an investigation.

The disappearance of the owners, Sunilkumar and Sudeeshkumar, comes after customers invested in two schemes run by the jewellers in which the customers could deposit funds in return for gold at a later date. Both owners have gone into hiding. The police have filed a cheating case against the owners and the area manager Manish Kundi.

“This diwali, feeling cheated due to Goodwin Jewellers,” one customer wrote on Goodwin Jewellers’ Facebook page on October 26. “We lost our hard earned money investing in Goodwin money scheme. Only yesterday after visiting their store we came to know the issue. We cancelled the monthly scheme and asked them to pay our money back. They told us we have buy gold only and they can't give cash... So ordered a ring and they promised that will be ready for dhantras. We went to collect the same. It was closed. Only then we enquired and came to know the issue with Goodwin Jewellers. Not only us so many people face felt cheated. Trusting and investing our hard earned money in it.”

The newspaper reported that the owners were unreachable by phone, but that a message believed to be from the chairman was played on the answerphone, saying: “What has happened is an outcome of a miscampaign that began three years ago when my family was in trouble. The business has been affected, but we are in the process of bringing in new ideas to tackle it."

Senior inspector at Ramnagar police station S P Aher told TNN that around 250 people have approached the police from the Dombivli area alone about the issue and that number is expected to rise.