Man arrested for duping Chennai couple of Rs 4L

Coimbatore: A 43-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for cheating a Chennai-based couple of Rs 4 lakh by promising them a loan of Rs 1 crore.
The Avinashi police in Tirupur district identified the accused as Sureshkumar, of Maniyakarampalayam in Coimbatore city.
A police officer said the couple - Alwin Rai and his wife Jennifer, of Perumalpuram extension at Tambaram in Chennai - had approached Sureshkumar, who introduced himself as Acharya, for a loan of Rs 1 crore to expand their truck transport business.
“Jennifer’s friend Kiruba told them about an advertisement in a newspaper that promised financial assistance for business purposes. Jennifer contacted the mobile phone number in the advertisement and the one who attended the call gave her another contact number of a person named Acharya,” the officer said.
She subsequently contacted the person, who agreed to arrange the loan and demanded Rs 4 lakh as document charges, which needed to be paid upfront. He also asked her to meet him at Avinashi on August 26.
“The couple met him on the agreed date and paid him Rs 4 lakh. He gave them a briefcase, which he said had the initial payment of Rs 55 lakh, and left the place. When the couple opened the briefcase, they found the currency notes were fake,”
Jennifer lodged a complaint with Avinashi police inspector Prema, who registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 489 B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes) of the Indian Penal Code the same day.
The Avinashi police arrested Sureshkumar on Saturday. Preliminary inquiry revealed Sureshkumar was involved in similar cases in Madurai district and Puliyampatti in Erode district. “He was also involved in stealing nine tonnes red sanders from a container depot at Irugur in Coimbatore in 2015,” the officer said.