Three persons were arrested for allegedly cheating people in Tamil Nadu and in Keralam by collecting over ₹100 crore promising to secure loans, police said on Thursday.
Acting on a complaint from a city-based businessman N Manivannan, the Central Crime Branch police arrested the key suspect ‘Lion’ Muthuvel alias Muthukrishna alias B M Chettiyar and two of his associates.
According to police, the trio lured Manivannan by promising to secure a business loan for industrial development in exchange for an advance payment as a service fee for them.
The three individuals collected an advance of ₹2 crore obtained signatures on cheques and blank papers but failed to arrange the loan as promised. Besides, they were demanding additional money by threatening Manivannan, police said.
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A special Central Crime Branch team was formed to probe the case which led to the arrest of 48-year-old Muthuvel, his accomplices, B Jagan (44) alias Gurubaran and A Thirukumaran (51) late on Wednesday.
“Further investigation revealed that the gang by adopting similar modus operandi had cheated the members of public of over ₹100 crore by promising to secure loans and several cases were pending against them in various police stations including in Dharmapuri and also in various police stations in Keralam,” the police said.
On completion of the investigation, the three were produced before a local court and were remanded to judicial custody.
Chennai City police commissioner A Amalraj urged the members of the public to approach banks for obtaining loans and advised not to get cheated by paying commissions to such fraudulent middlemen and financiers.