Panchayat chief held for cheating Coimbatore hospital chairman of Rs 2.85 crore

COIMBATORE: A village panchayat president from Pudukkottai district and his associate were arrested by the city crime branch police for cheating the chairman of a Coimbatore-based private hospital of Rs 2.85 crore.
Dr K Madheswaran, chairman, Royal Care Hospital, Coimbatore, lodged a complaint with city crime branch police inspector A Ravi on June 23.
In his complaint, Dr K Madheswaran said he was introduced to N Panneerselvam, 58, a panchayat president of Pachikottai village in Pudukkottai district, by his friend Balasubramaniam, who owns a school, on October 3, 2020.
“I requested Panneerselvam to arrange a loan of Rs 50 crore to expand my hospital. But Panneerselvam promised me that he would arrange to get Rs 100 crore and demanded Rs 2 crore as commission and Rs 85 lakh for document,” Dr Madheswaran said.
Believing his words, Dr Madheswaran gave Panneerselvam Rs 2 crore as commission and Rs 85 lakh for document work. On November 11, 2020, Madheswaran visited Chennai where Panneerselvam showed four demand drafts (each for Rs 25 crore) to Dr Madheswaran and again demanded one more crore as commission.
Dr Madheswaran doubted Panneerselvam and dropped the idea of taking a loan. He then demanded Panneerselvam to return Rs 2.85 crore.
As Panneerselvam threatened and refused to return the amount, Dr Madheswaran lodged a complaint with the CCB police who registered an FIR against Panneerselvam, Balasubramaniam, Selvakumar and Kennedy under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
A team of police led by CCB police inspector A Ravi arrested Pannerselvam and Selvakumar from Chennai on Wednesday and brought them to Coimbatore on Thursday. Police seized two cars, two fake demand drafts worth Rs 99.80 crore from them.