Kerala businessman Boby Chemmanur’s financial muscle power is not just built through his gold jewellery business and a maze of Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) firms, as reported in the first part of this investigation. It is also tied to a series of acts through a cooperative society that he has significant links with. The Malankara Multi State Cooperative Credit Society (MMSCCS), popularly known as Malankara society, is one of the biggest multi-state cooperative societies in Kerala.
The Chemmanur Group's "symbiotic" relationship with the Malankara Multistate Cooperative Credit Society (MMSCCS), which reportedly has 1,46,000 members, is evidenced by the loans extended to the firms linked to Boby. These loans run into several crores as per documents seen by TNM.
Nothing exemplifies the society’s generosity more than a specific collateral: a golden-coloured Rolls-Royce that Boby loves to flaunt. While the car's market value is bound to be much lesser, the MMSCCS granted a loan of ₹5 crore against it.
Apart from easy access to loans, Boby, as the brand ambassador and promoter, is getting paid around Rs 28 lakh per month from Malankara. In the last financial year alone, Malankara paid him Rs 3.43 crore as brand ambassador fee, nearly seven times higher than what they spent on business promotion.
TNM gave a detailed questionnaire and spoke at length with Jisso Baby, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Malankara Society, who insisted that these loans were not out of the ordinary for a successful co-operative society that has the right to lend money to members and that there was absolutely no conflict of interest.
The Borrowings
The Chemmanur group took over the reins of the flailing MMSCCS, which once belonged to the Malankara Catholic Church, in 2019. It then had only around 500 members.
Within a few years, the society grew to an influential financial body trusted by over one lakh members. As per Jisso, their deposits have now crossed Rs 550 crore.
Among Kerala-based multi-state cooperative societies, Malankara recorded a business turnover of Rs 895 crore in 2024-25, second only to the Pala-based Central Financial Credit and Investment Co-Operative India Ltd (CFCICI). Jisso said the turnover is almost Rs 1,100 crores now.
On the surface, Boby Chemmanur is the brand ambassador of the Malankara society but companies linked to him have been one of its major beneficiaries. Since the takeover, companies under the Chemmanur group have borrowed loans worth over Rs 157 crore from Malankara, documents show.
Between April and October 2025, Chemmanur Credits and Investments Limited (CCIL), a non-banking finance company (NBFC) under the Chemmanur group, borrowed loans worth at least Rs 72 crore from Malankara. Documents show that Rs 64 crore was repaid by October 2025.
Around the same time, CCIL raised money through non-convertible debentures (NCDs), a long-term debt instrument used to raise capital.
Most media never touch financial empires. We have no advertiser to please. Support fearless journalism. Subscribe to TNM.
As per the company documents of the 2021-22 period reviewed by TNM, Chemmanur International Gold Palace Limited has taken Rs 60 crore from the society, of which Rs 20 crore is an overdraft.
Anna Boby Jewellers LLP, an LLP which bears the name of Boby’s daughter, received Rs 5 crore loan. This is a loss making entity.
The society has also sanctioned a Rs 15 crore loan to Chemmanur International Holidays and Resorts, which also availed an additional Rs 5 crore by pledging the golden-coloured Rolls-Royce Phantom, the most popular among Boby's fleet of luxury cars. Jisso said the only repayment pending is that of Chemmanur International Holidays and Resorts.
Sources said the moratorium was extended multiple times for this company, allegedly an undue favour to the firm.
Sources said Rs 14 crore has been taken in the names of CDB Jewellers and CDB Developers, but TNM could not independently verify it. The acronym CDB stands for Chemmanur Devassykutty Boby.
Questions of conflict of interest
Boby, who is Malankara society’s promoter and brand ambassador, was paid Rs 2.55 crore as brand ambassador fee in the 2023-24 fiscal. In 2024-25, the fee increased by Rs 88 lakh.
Jisso defended the payments to Boby and said that they were giving a hike each year as Boby through his social media presence was the biggest promoter of the society. When a new Customer Felicitation Centre (CFC) of the society is opened, Boby's presence brings in crowds which help in growth of business, he said.
He added that all hikes are approved by the board. “We don’t give newspaper ads for the society. Boby brings in a lot of attention. Boby’s monthly remuneration now comes to over Rs 30 lakh,” Jisso said.
Out of the 12 board members, two significant officials - chairman and the vice chairman - are linked to Boby’s family, while another two are his close associates.
Jisso, chairman of the board is Boby’s wife’s cousin, Mariamma Pious, vice-chairman of Malankara Board, is Boby’s aunt, while Aney K and Rajeesh K were close associates and linked to his companies.
Jisso claimed that when decisions involve related companies or individuals such as Boby, any board member with a conflict of interest steps out of the meeting.
Malankara Society gave loans to Chemmanur Credits and Investments Pvt Ltd (CCIL) from 2024 onwards.
Boby is the Managing Director of CCIL and Jisso, was a full-time director in CCIL till March 31, 2021.
Till September 30, 2023, Jisso was also promoter category shareholder in CCIL. A promoter category shareholder is an individual who holds a significant stake in the company, and has control over its direction and management.
The MSCS Act bars a member of any multi-state cooperative society from serving on its Board if that member is involved in, or profits from, any contract made with the society.
Jisso was on Malankara’s board of directors from 2019-2021, while simultaneously being a director at CCIL. He told TNM that he exited the CCIL board after auditors pointed this out.
Jisso insists there is no conflict of interest as the loan was sanctioned only after he left CCIL. He however agreed that the society had not given loans to any other NBFC yet. “These were short term loans, given at a 16% interest rate and CCIL paid it back,” he added.
Another intriguing link is V Pahala, a former Reserve Bank of India officer who worked as a Manager at the Market Intelligence Wing of the regulatory body’s Thiruvananthapuram office. When the RBI probed illegal deposit schemes of Chemmanur International Jewellers in 2017, Pahala was part of the wing.
Immediately after his retirement in 2019, he joined Chemmanur International Gold Palace Limited as joint director and became a director a few months later. He was also a director in Malankara society in 2021. This is the same year that Malankara society gave a loan of Rs 60 crore to Chemmanur International Gold Palace Limited.
Jisso said, “However, the loan has been paid back.”
When asked about the ethics of an officer who had likely been involved in monitoring the group’s activities and later joining them, Jisso said they invited Pahala because they needed professionals. He added that over the years they had hired several senior banking officials to conduct the operations.
Stories like this are possible because we answer to readers, not advertisers.
Subscribe and keep us independent.
In its list of who can become members of a multi-state co-operative society, the MSCS Act does not specifically mention or exclude companies.
The Malankara society’s byelaw allows “persons” to be members and nominal members, and according to Jisso, they have interpreted “person” as defined under the Income Tax Act, which includes companies. This allows them to give loans to these companies.
However, he agreed that for other companies, they have only given loans less than Rs 5 crores. It is only for companies related to the Chemmanur group that the loans ran into several crores.
In 2022-23, when Malankara established a Sub-Committee of the Board responsible for approving or recommending loans and advances above ₹30 lakh, Mariyama Pious, Jisso Baby, Aney K, and Rajeesh AK became its members— all of them identified as either relatives or close associates of promoter Boby Chemmanur.
The next question is whether these loans are secured or unsecured. A secured loan is backed by collateral, while an unsecured loan is not.
In CCIL’s various public prospectuses for raising Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs), they have mentioned the loans as unsecured.
Jisso says all these loans were only given against collaterals, which is land in CCIL’s case. In some instances, Boby Chemmanur’s land has been given as collateral.
In Chemmanur Gold Palace International’s case, they availed the overdraft in November 2021, pledging gold stocked in their seven branches, which they claimed was worth Rs 138 crore. But the use of gold stock as a collateral for securing the loan was questionable.
“Chemmanur can’t claim that the entire jewellery stock in their showrooms belongs to them. They have borrowed gold from wholesale vendors on credit, which needs to be repaid. Besides, most showrooms owe gold to customers under advance gold purchase schemes and old gold schemes. These gold should be given to customers at the end of the term,” a source said.
Jisso kept pointing at the phenomenal growth of the society within a span of a few years. He said that other than the big loans to companies, they provide corporate employee loans. He said around 600 employees of the Chemmanur group have availed them. “We have a good turnover and we want to lend more. We may turn to our related companies for that. But there is no conflict of interest.”
How MMSCCS came under Boby’s control
The circumstances surrounding the Chemmanur Group's 2019 acquisition of the cooperative society is interesting.
The Malankara Credit Society was registered in February 2009 under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act when Abraham Mar Julios was the Bishop Emeritus of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church's Eparchy of Muvattupuzha. According to sources, the society encountered significant financial difficulties when its members defaulted on loans. When Yoohanon Mar Theodosius took charge as the second Eparchial Bishop of the Eparchy of Muvattupuzha, he decided to put things in place.
A discussion was arranged by V Pahala, the former RBI officer and one of the directors of Chemmanur International Gold Palace. The intent was to prevent the society from imminent collapse. The Chemmanur Group didn’t have to think twice about taking over the society.
In a special general body meeting held on December 21, 2019, eight directors and employees of Chemmanur group — Jisso Baby, Mariyamma Pious, MW Krishnan, K Aney, Rajeesh AK, V Pahala, Mathew PT, and CK Prabhakaran — were appointed as director board members of the Society.
Jisso is Boby’s cousin, Mariyamma his aunt and Aney his close associate. Rajeesh is a cleaning supervisor with Chemmanur International Gold Palace. Prabhakaran, was working in the finance wing of Chemmanur, while Mathew was a caretaker of one of the properties of the Chemmanur group.
PV Philip, the former promoter of the society and a relative of Mar Julios, challenged this move at the Kerala High Court. In a writ petition, Philip alleged that the norms of the society were flouted in the appointment of new board members. He alleged that the eight members of the Chemmanur group bought their shares from other members just a month before the special general body meeting. Even Philip's share was sold to one Bernadin, apparently after a lot of persuasion.
As per the society’s byelaw, only those who remain a member for a minimum of 12 months should have the eligibility to be a director. Philip told the court that Jisso and his team acquired their shares in November 2019, a month before the special general body meeting. Philip moved the court after the returning officer ignored his concerns over the alleged illegal appointments of the Chemmanur staff.
Some months later, Philip died due to a heart attack, bringing an end to all obstacles, including the Chemmanur Group’s legal hurdles. The case (WP(C) 9202, 2020) was dismissed in 2023 after the petitioner’s counsel informed the court that they are not pressing charges.
Astronomical growth
Malankara society has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last five years. At the time of takeover, Malankara had only 523 members.
“There was just a small room and equipment. Most outstanding loans had to be written off as bad loans,” Jisso claimed.
Sources said that the Chemmanur group, immediately after the takeover, added 1077 new members. Interestingly, all of them were Chemmanur Group employees. The Group’s Chief Financial Officer and legal advisers were included in the list.
Malankara has been running various deposit schemes offering huge returns. Some of these schemes promise doubling the investment amounts within 66 months. According to one promotional poster, depositors will receive Rs 2 lakh from their initial deposit of Rs 1 lakh in 66 months. Another flyer promised a maturity amount of Rs 1 crore for a deposit of Rs 4 lakh in 25 years. The society also offers recurring deposit schemes and fixed deposit schemes with a 9.75% interest rate. There are long-term deposit schemes of tenures 10-20 years.
The phenomenal rise in the number of depositors resulted from an aggressive campaign carried out by the Chemmanur Group through its agents and staff of Chemmanur Gold Palace International Limited.
In 2022, the RBI received a complaint alleging that the entity was collecting funds from members without voting rights in violation of rules and using Chemmanur showrooms and staff to canvas deposits for Malankara. RBI asked BUDS to initiate a probe, which was then handed over to the Crime Branch of police.
The Crime Branch, after questioning the Chemmanur staff, submitted a report which said that they canvassed customers as part of their business correspondent agreement with Malankara. "The deposits from interested customers are collected through cheques, and FD receipts were given. The depositors are offered 11% interest, and all transactions are via banks," it said. The Crime Branch then sought clarity from the state Cooperative Registrar on whether such an agreement is legal.
The Cooperative Registrar gave a clean chit to the Chemmanur Group, stating that such agreements for business purposes are legal as per section 9(1) of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. The methods adopted by the society to canvass deposits from the public were also 'prudent', the report said.
However, the Kerala state Law Department disagreed. A legal opinion by State Law Secretary in January 2023 said that Malankara society has violated norms such as section 67(1) of the Multistate Cooperative Societies Act (MCSA) and section 5 of Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 (BUDS Act).
In April 2024, the state Home Department referred the issue to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies under the Union Government, as it is the regulator of Multi-State Co-operative Societies. Even under the BUDS Act, an action could be taken only on the reference of the regulator. It is unclear whether any probe followed.
Note: Chemmanur jewellers and Chemmanur International jewellers are two unrelated groups owned by George Chemmanur and Boby Chemmanur respectively. Our investigation covers business firms linked to Boby Chemmanur.
Technical support: Reshmi Jayadas and Samaria Simon of Azhimukham
Stories like this are possible because we answer to readers, not advertisers.