Dubai: The Dubai police have confirmed that Indian expatriate businessman Joy Arakkal had jumped to death from the 14th floor on April 23. He was scheduled to chair a meeting at his office in the building in the Business Bay at noon that day.
Bur Dubai police station director Abdulla Khadim Bin Suroor ruled out any foul play behind the businessman’s death but a family friend suggested that Arakkal was worried about the delay in a business project. Though the sliding price of petrol had hurt business, Arakkal was confident that the losses could be arrested in the next three months. His business was exposed to other petroleum products as well.
The friend also said that Arakkal had nothing to do with another businessman whose accounts were frozen by the UAE Bank. There were reports linking the two businessmen.
Arakkal, who hailed from Mananthavadi in Kerala’s Wayanad district, was the managing director and major shareholder of UAE-based Innova Group of Companies. The company with a turnover of Rs 2 lakh crore was in the process of going public.
Armed with M Com and CA intermediate degrees, Arakkal reached Dubai in 1997 and built an empire that spanned crude oil trade, petrochemical manufacturing, oil tanker servicing and agro farming. His company was a major contractor for mobile service provider Etisalat.
He was expected to start a refinery in the Hamriyah Free Zone in Sharjah within a month. He was selected as the best entrepreneur by the UAE government in 2018 for his efforts in setting up the Hamriyah Free Zone company. He owned the largest oil tanker servicing station in the Gulf region. The company in DIC could clean up to 2,500 tankers.
He was bestowed with the moniker ‘Kappal Joy’ in his home state after he bought a 500-metric ton ship two years ago. He had set up offices in almost all Gulf countries apart from some African countries and in India. He had a sizeable share of the lubricant industry in Africa. He was granted a ‘Gold Card’ visa by the UAE government. The permit is granted to big businessmen.
The house he built in his hometown of Mananthavadi hogged limelight as one among the biggest in Kerala. He also contributed to organic farming and charity activities in the state.
He had set up a dialysis unit in a local hospital in memory of his mother. He gave away two and a half acres for building houses for those rendered homeless in the floods.
He was living in Jumeira along with wife Selin and sons Arun and Ashly. The family will accompany the body to Kerala. Indian authorities have already given nod flying the body home in a chartered flight. The body will be flown to Kozhikode as soon as the UAE government approves.
